Columnist Judith Miller blames low budgeting and undermanned law enforcement as the reason for the failure of Boston to prevent the Marathon terror bombings.

In her comparison of Boston to New York City, she cites 35,000 uniformed officers vs 2,000 in Boston, and how resources are budgeted in NYC to fight terrorism.

Bottom line – spend more taxpayer dollars, hire more police, install more cameras.

But to arrive at that implied conclusion, she ignores several key facts…

• New York City has an 8.25 million population, vs Boston’s 625,000;
• New York City is 468 square miles, vs Boston’s 89.6 sq miles;
• New York City is the center of the U.S. financial district, and as such demands a much higher level of security in concentrated areas; and,
• New York City has the dubious distinction over several decades of being a high value target for the world’s Islamist crazies. Boston is, well, Boston.

(So Boston has 1 officer per 312 citizens, NYC has 1 per 235…but New York’s size, its U.S. financial-center- and high-value-terror-target-status, arguably skews the equation.)

With those inconvenient facts being glaringly obvious, it might occur to someone that maybe – just maybe – it’s not a lack of resources, but a failure of prioritizing their use.

With one of the higher tax bases in the country, Bostonians might be shocked to learn that some Liberal elitists think it’s their fault…they aren’t paying government enough.

But then, it is Boston…

…surely in such a bastion of Liberal-think, they’re happy to pony up more?

After all, we wouldn’t want to blame the government…