I saw a meme today that had two pictures taken at night of buildings in New York City.

The first was from 1956 and showed three skyscrapers with their windows lighted up to form crosses, commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The second was taken in 2019 and showed the tip of the Freedom Tower glowing in pink to celebrate expanded access to abortion. The caption asked the reader to contemplate what had changed in the intervening years.

For one thing, women weren't clamoring to "Shout Your Abortion," especially to children.

For another, random pedestrians in the 1950s weren't getting sucker-punched and knocked unconscious as part of a demented 'knockout game.' I don't remember reading any stories from the '50s about gangs of kids, some as young as 13 who were engaged in carjacking, robbery and theft. Did subway riders in the '50s worry about getting set on fire or pushed in front of trains? Did Mardi Gras revelers have to keep their heads on swivels in case some psychopath decided to drive his truck down the sidewalk?

I'd imagine that back then, if you saw a backpack lying on a bench in a train station you'd pick it up and take it to Lost and Found. Nowadays you call 911 and they bring in a K-9 and a bomb disposal unit.

I was listening to a radio station out of New York City recently and a caller mentioned how she rides the subway multiple times every day, and she's noticed fewer and fewer older people using the service. She said people are afraid because, in her words "It's an insane asylum down there."

That might not be far from the truth.

According to Mental Health America, 60 million adults experienced a mental illness in 2024. 2022 saw the highest number of suicides ever recorded in the U.S. Even worse, 20% of children aged 12-17 had one or more major depressive episodes while one in 10 seriously considered suicide. More than half of these children have not received any mental health treatment.

Rebecca Barry, a researcher at the University of Calgary led a team that studied 48,000 homeless people in the U.S., Canada and Germany. They found that 67% of the individuals studied suffered from some degree of mental illness. Among the general population that number hovers between 13%-15%.

The homeless people in that study suffered from bipolar disorder at a rate eight times higher than the average population, with similar or higher rates for mood disorders, substance abuse and antisocial personality disorder. It might be possible that someone who's bipolar or has an antisocial personality disorder might be O.K. with pushing a stranger in front of a train.

There are a few bottlenecks in solving our societal safety problem. One is the affordability and availability of health care. Many of those who suffer don't have health insurance and there's a shortage of mental health professionals.

Another issue is the number of criminals being let out on bail, or even worse with no bail at all. Who would have guessed that letting violent felons out on reduced or zero bail would lead to increased recidivism?

A third cause is the increase of homelessness. Untreated mental illness and having a criminal record can easily lead to homelessness, as do the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence.

Restoring some semblance of normalcy will require a simultaneous, multi-pronged approach. Safety is a primary concern, so reforms to policing are crucial. Criminologist John Roman has written extensively on the subject and has published an impressive list of suggestions.

Space limitations preclude listing them but I encourage the reader to investigate them here. An emphasis on restoring bureaucratic support for law enforcement officers would go a long way towards improving morale and increasing the number of applicants to police academies. Putting more officers on the street and ending the “revolving door justice system” are obvious ways to reduce crime.

Dealing with offenses both real and potential by illegal aliens as well as hostiles ushered in by pResident (not a typo) Biden is a complex matter deserving of a separate, dedicated article.

Providing greater access to mental health services might be achieved by improving access to telemedicine, facilitating the appropriate utilization and allocation of existing services and addressing the needs of underserved groups. The Rand Corporation published a comprehensive document describing how these objectives might be delineated and achieved.  

These two reforms, one on law enforcement and the other on mental health will go a long way towards reducing the number of criminals and mentally ill individuals in our public spaces.

The final reform focuses on homelessness. The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress showed the number of homeless in the U.S. reached a record high of 771,480 people, an 18% increase from 2023.

Policy decisions to reduce homelessness need to be based on accurate, real-time data in order to optimize utilization of existing resources.

If cities and states don’t have accurate information on the number of homeless in their localities or the number and condition of available housing units, they can hardly be expected to make effective headway in putting roofs over people’s heads.

Also, we clearly need to reduce the number of people from becoming homeless in the first place, which will require integrated efforts at the local, state and federal levels.

Finally, we must create and implement effective housing solutions. Construction of low-income housing projects boomed after World War II, but problems soon developed.

Many were built on the outskirts of cities so residents felt isolated and even stigmatized. Some became magnets of crime and other social problems and many suffered from poor maintenance and deterioration resulting from lack of proper funding. Many of these issues could have been prevented with proper planning and management.

Perhaps a referendum on the construction of additional housing projects is in order. I would imagine that many Americans would more likely approve of their tax dollars being used to fund a national housing construction project rather than sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas to countries that hate us. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) might be able to suggest where to obtain funding for such a project.

Two other possible solutions worth mentioning are restoring the American economy so that people can sustain themselves in permanent housing, and reducing the number of illegal aliens who are utilizing resources more justly intended for American citizens.

The post-war economy in the 1950s fueled a boom in new home construction. We did it once, we can do it again. Similarly, trying to house more than ten million illegal immigrants while tens of thousands of U.S. military veterans and hundreds of thousands of other Americans sleep on sidewalks makes no sense at all.

Enter Tom Homan.

In Greek mythology, Cerberus was the vicious, three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades, preventing the living from entering. Today’s version of this beast are the interrelated evils of poor mental health, crime and homelessness that threaten a peaceful, secure society.

Dealing with today’s Cerberus will require focus, clearly expressed goals and above all, the will to do so.

Image: Thomas Quine, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0