No. For starters, crime is not soaring. It’s at historic lows. In fact, the incidence of everything from murder to rape and petty theft was five times higher in the 1980s and early 1990s than it is today.
Perception vs. reality
But thanks to social media, so many crimes get viral coverage, almost every crime gets treated like the OJ Simpson crime of the century. This has created the vexing phenomenon of perception trumping reality, which now animates our daily lives.
I mean, what do you think your perception of New York City would be if your feed were inundated with videos of flash mobs robbing stores, idiots sucker-punching Asian pedestrians, and homeless people randomly shoving commuters onto the subway tracks, killing them?
It wouldn’t matter that these are all relatively isolated incidents. Because the viral propagation of each one on social media would feed the perception of a crime-ridden city. And, for many people, that perception would become reality.
Not to mention that many of the smash-and-grab crimes that are instilling so much fear these days are happening in cities like Walnut Creek, where the leadership is entirely white.
The irony of ironies, though, is that no one is more responsible for feeding this perception of NYC than Mayor Eric Adams himself. This, because he ran his entire campaign as if here were a black version of the crime-fighting Rudy Giuliani of the 1990s, pledging to restore law and order.
Adams, a wannabe black Giuliani
The problem is that, while Giuliani had real crimes to fight, Adams has to fight that perception of crime as well, which is tantamount to chasing ghosts.
I say “as well” advisedly. After all, nothing feeds that perception quite like Adams having to contend with a boneheaded district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who insists on “bail reform” that allows suspects to get back on the street immediately after being charged.
‘As soon as we catch them, the system releases them, and they repeat the action,’ Adams said. ‘When I say we’re the laughingstock of the country, this is what I’m talking about. How do we keep our city safe, when the other parts of the criminal justice system — they have abandoned our public safety apparatus?’
‘We’re not talking about someone that steals an apple,’ Adams said. ‘We’re talking about someone that has repeatedly used violence in our city.’
(Spectrum News NY1, July 26, 2022)
Evidently, Adams sees bail reform today the way Giuliani saw “broken windows” in the mid-1990s. On this point, I agree.
Racism
That said, I do not mean to suggest there’s no racism afoot. After all, it’s no coincidence that over 1,500 (white) officers have resigned or retired early since Adams became mayor and appointed black Keechant L. Sewell the city’s first female commissioner. Because that mass resignation represents the most in NYC history.
Not to mention the thousands of other whites who might be showing their racist opposition to working under black NYC leadership by “quiet quitting”…
For what it’s worth, though, the NYPD is still 43% white, 31% Hispanic, and 16% black, and 10% Asian.
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