OPD put out a press release yesterday and it’s good news. Crime overall is down 29% from a year ago. Violent crime is down 22%. We all fall to our knees and thank the heavens for this respite from our recent past.
The news is so recent that Barbara Lee hasn’t even had time yet to take credit for it; no doubt she will, perhaps even by the time you read this. She’ll brag about how she and her progressive regime instituted certain programs that have brought about this wonderful event.
However, in the interests of Truth, I have to stick a pin into Lee’s hubris. Crime is down in almost every city across America—in fact, it’s down significantly in 31 of 35 cities tracked by the Council on Criminal Justice. Here are some of the biggest decreases, where homicide is down by double digits:
Denver -41%
Washington, DC -40%
Omaha -40%
Los Angeles -36%
Buffalo -35%
Albuquerque -33%
Long Beach -32%
Atlanta -32%
Baltimore -31%
Norfolk -31%
Salt Lake City -29%
Dallas -27%
Austin -26%
Memphis -25%
New York -22%
Louisville -22%
Nashville-Davidson -22%
San Francisco -22%
Minneapolis -21%
Detroit -21%
Chandler AZ -20%
San Antonio -19%
Philadelphia -18%
Lincoln -16%
Chattanooga -16%
St. Louis -11%
Significant decreases also were notable in almost all other crimes.
Now, last I checked, Barbara Lee was not mayor of any of these other cities. Not to be snarky, but common sense tells us there have got to be other reasons, besides Ceasefire or the Department of Violence Prevention or MACRO, why crime is down everywhere. What are those other reasons?
My research suggests a number of possible factors: the “informal guardianship” of the citizenry, which nearly disappeared during the pandemic, has returned, making it harder for thugs to get away with crap in the streets. Technology, such as FLOCK cameras, facial recognition and license plate readers, DNA analysis even in cold cases, and the shift away from paper money (which makes robbery less common), also help a lot. Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act and Newsom’s assistance to Oakland also have lent a hand locally. Trump touts his personal impact on the nation—his alpha-male posturing and war on illegal immigrants, in particular, although we know that undocumented persons have never been a major source of criminal behavior, which is overwhelmingly homegrown. The shift in the street away from cocaine/crack toward fentanyl and heroin may have led to more timid or relaxed lawbreaking on the part of a soporific criminal class. Some have postulated the reduction in lead in gasoline, others new gun control procedures despite opposition from Republicans. And let us not forget that hundreds of thousands of bad people are now in prison, which makes it impossible for them to prey on society—at least, unless and until some progressive D.A. lets them go free.
It may well be that no one really knows or will know until decades have passed, by which time historians and sociologists may have deciphered the reasons. But whatever the causes, we know two things: (1) we can be thankful for it, and (2) it really has little or nothing to do with local policies.
As far as I’m concerned, the rise in violent crime over the decades in our cities, including Oakland, was a direct result of the takeover of local government by cop-hating, “equity”-minded progressives, who went “soft” on crime due to ideological and racial perversity. The crime decrease may be related to the cultural revolt against such leftwing nonsense, and, if that’s true, Trump does get some of the credit. Americans may just have grown sick and tired of crime, and individually and collectively began resisting it, which filtered down into every neighborhood, every church and schoolroom, every family. This, if true, would be a fantastic blessing.
At the same time, we have to keep up the pressure on the left, which—unleashed as they wish to be—would simply revert to their old practices of letting criminals off the hook and persecuting the police. Here in Oakland, you know as well as I that there are regressive, reprobate forces looking to end this respite from crime. We know who they are: I don’t have to tell you because I’ve named them for years. Let us please elect and support candidates who seem like they’re sane enough to support law enforcement, even if that means standing up to the corrupt unions and their dirty money.
Steve Heimoff