The Patriot Post® · Crime: Perception vs. Reality

Similar to the melancholy undercurrents of the economy, people sense that crime is rising under the Biden/Harris administration. Democrats claim crime rose under (and because of) President Donald Trump, while it’s fallen under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. However, the majority of Americans disagree with the Democrat narrative.

According to a November Gallup poll, 92% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats believe that crime is more prevalent today. More recent Rasmussen surveys show that, on average, 60% of Americans believe crime is on the rise.

There are several factors that play into this, but, à la the economy, Democrats are playing with the numbers and hoping the American people don’t notice.

How are they able to do this? Well, “fact-checkers” show us how. Regarding Trump’s claim that violent crime is up 47% under Biden and Harris, PolitiFact obfuscates:

The National Crime Victimization Survey, which the Justice Department conducts annually, shows a 43% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2022. But another federal source shows the opposite picture.

The FBI’s annual data from 2020 to 2022 shows a decline in violent crime, as does the FBI’s preliminary data for 2023. Multiple nongovernmental crime statistics analyses also found violent crime declined in 2023 and 2024.

For starters, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) shows the number of people who have been victims of crimes (both reported to the police and unreported). The FBI data only covers the reports filled out by the police. You need to use both in concert to get a better idea of how many crimes have actually occurred.

That being said, both the FBI and the NCVS numbers are increasingly inaccurate.

In 2021, the FBI changed the rules of reporting, and many important cities and states are slow-walking their statistics. New York, California, and Illinois all have some of the lowest reporting since the rule change, which means we’re missing data from some of our biggest metropolitan areas like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This has a major impact on the FBI’s numbers.

The NCVS numbers are likely not accurate either, and several factors are at play. There has been a decisive shortage of police officers since the 2020 “defund the police” movement. “For far too long,” Harris has remarked, “the status quo thinking has been to believe that by putting more police on the street, you’re going to have more safety — and that’s just wrong.”

Police officers and departments have also battled being utterly demoralized by the Democrats’ demonization. Not only are officers on incredibly short leashes for fear of being prosecuted, but Soros-backed district attorneys have let apprehended criminals right back onto the streets. What is the point of arresting criminals if they’ll be let out a few hours later to continue their reign of terror? Good cops are leaving the force in droves as a result, and too few men and women are looking to become officers.

This despair is reflected in the community, too. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently pointed out, “It has gotten to the point where people aren’t even bothering reporting crime because they don’t think anything is going to happen.”

Finally, Democrats are trying to gaslight the American people into believing that crime really isn’t that bad. They only talk about violent crime statistics, not all crime statistics. They have to get specific because otherwise, the truth of the state of things would be glaring. Even the Biden/Harris-supported nonprofit Council on Criminal Justice shows devastating numbers in its July report when the descriptors are widened to include crimes like carjacking, shoplifting, and looting. Columnist Eddie Scarry breaks down the key findings of that report:

“There were … more nonresidential burglaries in the first half of 2024 than during the same period five years earlier.” Nonresidential burglaries — theft from places of business — have marginally decreased from the previous three years. But going back to the same time period in 2019, before the year of BLM and Patron Saint George Floyd, it’s still up just shy of 15 percent.

“Motor vehicle thefts more than doubled during the timeframe …” Car theft decreased in the first half of 2024 compared to the previous year, but it remains nearly 30 percent higher than in 2021.

“Shoplifting is 10% higher.” Shoplifting has increased each year of the Harris-Biden presidency. Comparing the first half of 2021 to the first half of this year, it’s a 41 percent increase.

Democrats think that if they repeat a lie enough, the rest of America will believe it. Ultimately, though, numbers don’t lie, and most Americans aren’t falling for the ruse where the economy and crime are concerned, both of which are highly ranked issues in the 2024 election. Democrat “justice” means brazen criminals and a fearful citizenry — and Americans have had enough.