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| The Philadelphia Inquirer/AP Composite: Mark Kelly |
The focus on comparing 2019 and 2022 rates obscures how bad policy has worsened violence.
There’s more to the FBI’s newly released Crime in the Nation Statistics than headlines would have you believe. The story from many outlets is that violent crime is no longer an issue—it surged with the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and has since declined. Violent crime nationally fell 1.3% in 2022, putting the year’s rate on a similar footing as 2019’s. But a glance at the top-line FBI numbers indicates that more is going on. Murders decreased 6% compared with 2021, and aggravated assault decreased 1.5%. But carjackings rose more than 8%, and robberies increased 1.3%.
Part of the problem with most media analysis is that 2019 didn’t represent a historical baseline of homicide and violent crime rates in America—2014 did. Nationally, violent crime and murder were much more prevalent in 2019 than in 2014. So though U.S. rates have fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, the country is well above normal violent-crime rates. Total violent crime in 2022 was 5% higher than in 2014, an increase that represents tens of thousands of additional victims in a single year. The national homicide rate in 2022 was 43% higher than in 2014. Since 2015, there have been roughly 30,000 more murders in the U.S. than there would have been if the homicide rate had stayed at the 2014 low.
None of this is easily attributable to Covid, nor are the vast local differences in violent crime and homicide rates that emerged in the past year and a half. Some cities have seen marked drops in crime. So far in 2023 homicides are down 17% in Atlanta, violent crime has fallen 12% in Dallas, and Miami’s murder and violent crime rates have hit historic lows. Elsewhere, things aren’t going nearly as well. In Washington, violent crime is up 40% in the first 10 months of 2023 compared with this time last year, and homicides are up 33%. Seattle has already had 10 more murders this year than in all of 2022. San Francisco’s murder rate also is on track to surpass last year’s.
Pre- and post-pandemic comparisons obscure it, but there’s an obvious factor that explains the rate differences in these places and the overall national increase: public safety policy. Officials in Washington, Seattle and San Francisco all have permissive attitudes toward criminals and hostile ones toward police. The capital has been a leader in bad policy. Washington has twice significantly defunded the police in recent years, and in 2022 attempted to reduce penalties for carjackings even as auto-theft rates were skyrocketing. That change was so ill-advised that Congress overturned it this year. --->READ MORE HERE
Five members of the NYPD — including three members of the Bomb Squad — are suing the city for $75 million, claiming their careers were ended by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The officers, all with decades of experience, said they’ve lost out on a “full pension, with annual interest, and health benefits” after they were fired in 2022 for refusing to get the jab.
The city lifted its vaccine mandate for employees in February, but the five men — Detectives Paul McCartney, a US Marine with 17 years on the job; Jean Pierre Sylvestre, a US Marine veteran who’s worked 20 years at the NYPD; Joseph Trancho, who worked there 18 years; Sgt. Craig Collopy, who served 27 years; and Lt. Christopher Eckert, who also had 20 years — have so far not reapplied for their posts.
McCartney was with the NYPD’s Emergency Services’ Unit when he declined to be vaccinated, and Eckert had previously served with ESU.
The mandate was blasted by workers who said it was unfair, and it’s been the subject of numerous lawsuits.
About 1,780 workers were fired for refusing to get vaccinated.
The officers “paid a heavy price for refusing compulsory vaccination, while every other unvaccinated person paid no price at all,” they said in their Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit against the city, Mayor Adams and then city Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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