Now that Donald Trump has adopted another plank from the campaign of George Wallace by declaring himself the “law and order candidate,” he needs some disorder to run against.
Of course, Trump is primarily playing a very familiar tune on a very old dog whistle. That tune is called “The blacks are getting uppity.” His timing of his law and order campaign is intended as a response to Black Lives Matter, and his “inner cities” is a shorthand so well worn Republicans probably have an emoji for it. But let’s do as Trump asks. Let’s look at Chicago.
While Chicago runs slightly above the national average in most years, its crime rate over the last twenty years displays the same sharp decline as the rest of the nation. It’s not “out of control,” unless your idea of out of control is going down. And as for the “inner cities” tip o’ the Wallace hate hat, far from having the highest crime rate in the state, Chicago was easily topped by small towns like Danville or Mt. Vernon. The violent crime rate in Chicago is less than half that of the much smaller state capitol, Springfield.
Chicago has suffered a number of shootings in the first half of this year, causing a small spike in the data, but that spike is barely a blip on a twenty year trend of decline. The only thing out of control, is Trump.
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump, Updated June 3, 2016
http://paxonbothhouses.
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump, Updated June 3, 2016
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Trump "University" Scam
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Trump "University" Scam
In fact, across the nation it’s not the large cities where crime is at its worst. The worst locations for crime are smaller cities and towns. Chicago’s rate of 432 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2014 may not seem that great. But it’s barely a tenth the rate in tiny Oceana, West Virginia where the rate tops 4,100. Overall, small towns have a lower average of just 274, but when small towns are bad, they can be very bad.
Nationwide, crime is down, and it keeps moving down. That’s true across cities of all sizes. What’s increased over the last twenty years is not crime, but our awareness of crime. For good and ill, we know experience shootings on the far side of the country as if they happened on our block.
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