Were one to listen to the Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) media, one would rejoice at the dramatic drop in crime in America’s blue, D/s/c ruled cities under the enlightened Harris/Biden Administration. However, residents of those cities, aren’t rejoicing, quite the opposite. Still, one of the primary themes of the Harris/Walz campaign is how tough Kamala was on crime, and how her brilliant anti-crime policies have caused crime rates, particularly violent crime rates, to dramatically drop. Axios is representative of D/s/c cheerleading: 

New preliminary data from major U.S. cities shows a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year — more than 25% in some communities — as the COVID-era crime wave recedes.

Why it matters: The drop in violent crime puts a serious dent in one of the most frequently used lines of attack by former President Trump and his allies, who have sought to tie Democrats to the issue since 2020.

Tim Walz and Pete Buttigieg are also cheerleading:

Make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz warned in his first speech as Kamala Harris’ running mate.

“If you look this up at home,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg claimed last month, “you will know that crime went down under Biden and crime went up under Trump. Why would America want to go back to the higher crime we experienced under Donald Trump?”

But the opposite is true: Between 2016 and 2020, violent crime fell by 17% under Trump — and soared by 43% under Biden between 2020 and 2022.

Graphic: X Screenshot

For years now, police agencies across the country—more than 50%--have declined to report crime statistics to the FBI, once the gold standard for such things, but no longer.  Part of the problem is defunded police agencies, lacking manpower and unable to recruit, don’t have the time and manpower for that kind of paperwork. Many can’t even respond to most 911 calls. This is particularly true for major, blue state cities. But for those cities particularly, there is a more important issue: politics. D/s/c politicians are loath to admit crime is running out of control in their cities, so they simply don’t report it. They lie. No reports, dramatically decreasing crime. And police officers, knowing their prosecutors are more likely to prosecute them than criminals, do as little as possible, particularly in high crime areas. No reports; no crime.

Historically, the public underreports various types of crimes. Only about 40% of violent crimes are reported to the police, and only about 30% of property crimes, and those mostly for insurance purposes. The public doesn’t expect the police to solve most crimes, and they’re mostly right.

Part of the reason is that law enforcement in the United States has collapsed.

Take, for example, cities like New York with more than 1 million people. 

The FBI data shows arrest rates for reported violent crime in such cities plunged by more than half, from 44% in the five years before the COVID pandemic to just 20% by 2022 — the largest drop ever.

The 2020 “Summer of Love” has had deadly fallout:

In 2022, in cities with more than a million people, only 8% of all violent crimes (reported and unreported) and 1% of all property crimes resulted in an arrest — and of course, not all those arrests resulted in charges, let alone prosecutions or convictions.

It’s also important to be aware of historic trends, not just year to year data:

Some critics focus on the change in the murder rate over the past few years to claim that the publicly perceived rise in crime is a mirage. 

Murder rates did drop by 13% in 2023, although the preliminary 2023 murder rate is still 7% above 2019 levels.

But the FBI’s murder rate data may be faulty, too: The Centers for Disease Control’s measure doesn’t match up with the FBI’s.

Why the Centers for Disease Control would be keeping such statistics is a mystery only if one ignores their constant urge to conflate crime with disease as a means to manipulate public opinion to ban guns.

One suspects San Franciscans, who can’t leave a vehicle unattended for more than two minutes before someone smashes windows to steal whatever is inside, aren’t buying D/s/c crime reduction propaganda, nor are Chicagoans, where weekly wounded and killed statistics rival many active war zones. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can gaslight Americans about reductions in crime, but just as with their inflation gaslighting, Americans, particularly those living in major blue cities, know their “lived experience,” and “their truth” is crime is out of control and it’s not Donald Trump’s fault.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.