The Biden Administration and All Things Politics

[LogGrad98]

That ‘perceive’ seems like a pretty important distinction. Almost like we have fear mongering news outlets with agendas.

Don't forget social media mob mentality. Everyone is out to get us, so crime must be worse than ever before. Just like everyone thinks there is a stranger waiting behind every bush to kidnap your children when actual stranger child abduction statistics have been basically flat for the past 50 years+. It is ridiculous what people spread and believe with no evidence. We really are a bunch of sheep or lemmings. Shlemmings?

 

[Al-O-Meter]

I wonder if the actual crime statistics prove this out, or just more fear-mongering on social media. My guess is the latter. I live in California and I feel like in the inland empire overall crime is down. I don't know the stats, but it is my impression.

America’s crime wave is not a right-wing myth

Democrats will pay a heavy price for dismissing voters’ concerns.

www.spiked-online.com

 

[LogGrad98]

America’s crime wave is not a right-wing myth

Democrats will pay a heavy price for dismissing voters’ concerns.

www.spiked-online.com

It is an interesting topic with a lot of incomplete data due to the way it is tracked, Hard to get a consolidated statistic on overall "crime". It is mostly tracked only as violent crime or for certain crimes, like shootings, homicide, etc. This one is interesting:

Reported violent crime rate in the U.S. 2023| Statista

In 2023, the violent crime rate in the United States was 363.8 cases per 100,000 of the population.

www.statista.com

Overall mean has risen on violent crime from 2016 on compared to the previous 5 years. COVID definitely spurred an increase in violent crime rates, although still within the range we have seen over the last 10 years or so. It's kind of leveling out it appears, statistically speaking.



Property crime is on a steady decline since 1990. Of course since the FBI is updating their system not all data is transferred over yet, so this is not completely accurate.

https://crime-data-explorer.app.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

So it still seems that there isn't a huge crime wave sweeping across the country. At least the statistics don't bear it out. The way people are acting you would think these numbers had doubled or tripled, but the increases (and decreases) are fully within the range we have seen for a decade now, with a statistically minor uptick from COVID insecurity.



Edit: this shows more data and explanation on the increase in murder rate while the violent crime rates fell from 2019 to 2022 and provides some data from bigger cities that were possibly under-reporting. Mostly balanced reporting.

US crime: Is America seeing a surge in violence?

Law and order promises to be a key talking point in the US midterms. We look at the numbers.

www.bbc.com

Is violent crime going up?​

According to incomplete data released by the FBI, violent crime fell by an estimated 1% in 2021 compared with the previous year. However, the number of murders increased by more than 4%.
The fall in violent crime was largely driven by a drop of nearly 9% in the robbery rate over that period.
There are questions about the reliability of the FBI's crime report as it excluded data from some of the biggest US cities, including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

It's important to point out that last year, the FBI switched to a new data collection system. According to one analysis, nearly 40% of law enforcement agencies have failed to report their 2021 crime figures - so we may only have a partial picture of the most recent crime rates.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

COVID definitely spurred an increase in violent crime rates

What is your basis for making this claim? You are acting as if it is proven that an effect of infection by that virus causes people to become violent, and that is not a thing I've even heard alleged let alone proved.

 

[LogGrad98]

What is your basis for making this claim? You are acting as if it is proven that an effect of infection by that virus causes people to become violent, and that is not a thing I've even heard alleged let alone proved.

It is the one anomalous thing that happened that year. Nothing else changed really to explain it. If you try to say Biden was elected so automatically crime increased that is every bit as specious. No way it had that level of impact. There are well-documented issues of keeping people confined, in close quarters, with job insecurity and money insecurity causing psychological distress and accompanying domestic issues. It follows that a rise in crime would come along with it. Especially considering the rise in violent incidents was higher among people the victim knew than from stranger to stranger. How do you explain it?


Here you go:

First Covid raised the murder rate. Now it’s changing the politics of crime.

Violent crime spiked across the country during the pandemic, forcing a reckoning in cities like Atlanta.

www.politico.com

But this crime wave wasn’t like those of earlier decades, which were often concentrated in big cities. The increased violent crime during the Covid-19 pandemic hit everywhere — big cities, small towns and rural areas as well. Where Atlanta and Washington, D.C., reported a steep increase in violent crime, so too did less populated places like Augusta, Georgia and Norfolk, Virginia.

Second, even as violent crimes increased nationally, property crimes and burglaries decreased.

“What the pandemic did was it shifted a lot of these patterns,” Topalli said of the difference in crimes. It owes in part, he explained, to “many more people staying at home, fewer people actually going into places of business … we’ve seen a drop in those kinds of crimes that we would expect would be affected by that.”

Experts have been making the case for years that keeping communities safe depends on the availability of resources that keep communities stable: affordable housing, quality education, mental health resources and child care, to name a few. The pandemic reduced or eliminated access to all of these.

That’s how many crime experts explain why violent crime increased everywhere during Covid, even if the situation was most acute in low-income communities where these resources were already limited.

 

[Gameface]

It is the one anomalous thing that happened that year. Nothing else changed really to explain it. If you try to say Biden was elected so automatically crime increased that is every bit as specious. No way it had that level of impact. There are well-documented issues of keeping people confined, in close quarters, with job insecurity and money insecurity causing psychological distress and accompanying domestic issues. It follows that a rise in crime would come along with it. Especially considering the rise in violent incidents was higher among people the victim knew than from stranger to stranger. How do you explain it?


Here you go:

First Covid raised the murder rate. Now it’s changing the politics of crime.

Violent crime spiked across the country during the pandemic, forcing a reckoning in cities like Atlanta.

www.politico.com

The way Biden is ruining America makes me so mad I hit my wife. /s

 

[Al-O-Meter]

It is the one anomalous thing that happened that year. Nothing else changed really to explain it.

I think you are being deliberately blind in your assessment. The difference were the very progressive, soft-on-crime district attorneys who were elected into power and essentially decriminalized crime. In the earlier post I had an image of a shoplifter in San Francisco filling a trash bag in the aisles of a Walgreens. That didn't happen because the shoplifter got COVID and lost his mind. Since that peak, democrats have been fleeing from their earlier public 'defund the police' stances. The progressive district attorneys have been getting impeached and getting voted out of office. The problem was progressive democrats. Now the problem for progressive democrats is that their earlier public statements make great campaign material for republicans.

I know you desperately want to find fault with anything other than democrat policies, but your claim that it was COVID that made people crazy is laughable. If anything, crime is the one area where democrats have realized they have screwed the pooch and have backtracked to more sane positions. I only wish democrats were even half as self-aware on how their extreme deficit spending caused inflation and wrecked the economy as they seem on their earlier policies facilitating a crime wave.

 

[Red]

You are acting as if it is proven that an effect of infection by that virus causes people to become violent,

No, it’s not an effect, or a symptom. Covid causes loss of taste. True. Covid causes people to become violent? Not true. Thats not what LogGrad98 was saying. Violence is not a symptom of Covid. That’s not the case. I simply googled “did Covid cause violent crimes to increase?” and got many returns, ranging from mainstream press articles, to scientific papers. Google the same. Here was one of the simpler returns, pointing out something that seemed like a common sense conclusion:

Doctors: COVID-19 pandemic stress causing increase in violent crimes

Memorial Hermann in the Medical Center saw over 4,682 traumas from January of this year to June. That’s over 1,000 more traumas than the same time frame last year.

www.khou.com

 

[Red]

I think you are being deliberately blind in your assessment. The difference were the very progressive, soft-on-crime district attorneys who were elected into power and essentially decriminalized crime. In the earlier post I had an image of a shoplifter in San Francisco filling a trash bag in the aisles of a Walgreens. That didn't happen because the shoplifter got COVID and lost his mind. Since that peak, democrats have been fleeing from their earlier public 'defund the police' stances. The progressive district attorneys have been getting impeached and getting voted out of office. The problem was progressive democrats. Now the problem for progressive democrats is that their earlier public statements make great campaign material for republicans.

I know you desperately want to find fault with anything other than democrat policies, but your claim that it was COVID that made people crazy is laughable. If anything, crime is the one area where democrats have realized they have screwed the pooch and have backtracked to more sane positions. I only wish democrats were even half as self-aware on how their extreme deficit spending caused inflation and wrecked the economy as they seem on their earlier policies facilitating a crime wave.

Again, please see my previous post. Nobody is saying Covid made people crazy. This is not that difficult to understand. Google “did Covid cause violent crime to increase?”. Why are you thinking anybody is claiming that Covid causes people to become violent, as if becoming violent is a symptom of Covid? I think you’re having what we sometimes call a brain fart. Think!

 

[Al-O-Meter]

No, it’s not an effect, or a symptom. Covid causes loss of taste. True. Covid causes people to become violent? Not true.

You should have stopped there. Everything you wrote after that was spin. It isn't difficult. When you reduce police forces and reduce prosecutions, crime goes up. Then when you realize it was really dumb to do those things and take action to undo the earlier damage then crime stops rising. The main reason it has so much traction right now is because of the non-stop political advertising making sure voters don't forget what the progressive democrats did when they were in power.

 

[LogGrad98]

I think you are being deliberately blind in your assessment. The difference were the very progressive, soft-on-crime district attorneys who were elected into power and essentially decriminalized crime. In the earlier post I had an image of a shoplifter in San Francisco filling a trash bag in the aisles of a Walgreens. That didn't happen because the shoplifter got COVID and lost his mind. Since that peak, democrats have been fleeing from their earlier public 'defund the police' stances. The progressive district attorneys have been getting impeached and getting voted out of office. The problem was progressive democrats. Now the problem for progressive democrats is that their earlier public statements make great campaign material for republicans.

I know you desperately want to find fault with anything other than democrat policies, but your claim that it was COVID that made people crazy is laughable. If anything, crime is the one area where democrats have realized they have screwed the pooch and have backtracked to more sane positions. I only wish democrats were even half as self-aware on how their extreme deficit spending caused inflation and wrecked the economy as they seem on their earlier policies facilitating a crime wave.

Did you read anything else I posted? No, of course not. Why would I expect anything different?

 

[Red]

I think you are being deliberately blind in your assessment. The difference were the very progressive, soft-on-crime district attorneys who were elected into power and essentially decriminalized crime. In the earlier post I had an image of a shoplifter in San Francisco filling a trash bag in the aisles of a Walgreens. That didn't happen because the shoplifter got COVID and lost his mind. Since that peak, democrats have been fleeing from their earlier public 'defund the police' stances. The progressive district attorneys have been getting impeached and getting voted out of office. The problem was progressive democrats. Now the problem for progressive democrats is that their earlier public statements make great campaign material for republicans.

I know you desperately want to find fault with anything other than democrat policies, but your claim that it was COVID that made people crazy is laughable. If anything, crime is the one area where democrats have realized they have screwed the pooch and have backtracked to more sane positions. I only wish democrats were even half as self-aware on how their extreme deficit spending caused inflation and wrecked the economy as they seem on their earlier policies facilitating a crime wave.

Yeah, you’re confused. Happens to the best of us, but I am surprised. LogGrad98’s point was not ripe for the type of misinterpretation you somehow came up with. Here’s a sampling:

Why Homicide Rates in US Spiked 30% During COVID Pandemic

Proliferation of guns, pandemic stress, and diminished public trust in the police, all contributed, experts say

www.voanews.com

Changes in Crime Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

We estimate changes in the rates of five FBI Part 1 crimes during the 2020 spring COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period and the period after the killing of George Floyd through December 2020. We use we...

www.tandfonline.com

Impact Report: COVID-19 and Crime - Council on Criminal Justice

This updated analysis explores trends in violent, property, and drug offenses during the COVID-19 pandemic through March 2021.

counciloncj.org

Unemployment associated with increase in violence early in COVID-19 pandemic

The sharp rise in unemployment during the first five months of the pandemic was associated with an increase in firearm violence and homicide in 16 major American cities. That was the finding of a new study from the Violence Prevention Research Program.

health.ucdavis.edu

A lot more returns where these came from. Google is our friend, and a lot of this is really just common sense!

 

[LogGrad98]

Yeah, you’re confused. Here’s a sampling:

Why Homicide Rates in US Spiked 30% During COVID Pandemic

Proliferation of guns, pandemic stress, and diminished public trust in the police, all contributed, experts say

www.voanews.com

Changes in Crime Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic

We estimate changes in the rates of five FBI Part 1 crimes during the 2020 spring COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period and the period after the killing of George Floyd through December 2020. We use we...

www.tandfonline.com

Yeah basically what I already posted. Most experts on the subject say that the stress and confinement associated with COVID, along with the scarcity of resources and insecurity, was a driver of the increase in violent crime. Not THE ONLY driver, but a driver, and for many of them considered a strong driver, of the increase in violent crime.

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Did you read anything else I posted? No, of course not. Why would I expect anything different?

Yeah, you’re confused.

Both of you, do you think the San Franciscan filling the trash bag in Walgreens was doing so because of COVID stresses? San Francisco doesn't. They blamed Chesa Boudin and voted him out of office.

 

[LogGrad98]

Both of you, do you think the San Franciscan filling the trash bag in Walgreens was doing so because of COVID stresses? San Francisco doesn't. They blamed Chesa Boudin and voted him out of office.

LOL so now anecdotal evidence is sufficient for you to blame Biden and the democrats again? They are really your boogie-man aren't they. Yes, the kid stealing a pack of gum was because Biden or some other democrat got elected. Now you just sound stupid.

 

[Red]

You should have stopped there. Everything you wrote after that was spin. It isn't difficult. When you reduce police forces and reduce prosecutions, crime goes up. Then when you realize it was really dumb to do those things and take action to undo the earlier damage then crime stops rising. The main reason it has so much traction right now is because of the non-stop political advertising making sure voters don't forget what the progressive democrats did when they were in power.

OK, I’ll forevermore assume you’re just not man enough to admit you made a mistake. Really, quit while you’re behind. I can’t believe you are this slow. Wake up!

 

[Al-O-Meter]

Yes, the kid stealing a pack of gum was because Biden or some other democrat got elected.

If it were a kid stealing a pack of gum then downtown San Francisco wouldn't be a brick-and-mortar sales wasteland. If you want to call American voters stupid for being concerned about a rise in crime then I can't stop you, but know that tactic isn't playing well with voters.

 

[Red]

You are acting as if it is proven that an effect of infection by that virus causes people to become violent, and that is not a thing I've even heard alleged let alone proved.

You silly, silly guy! Here you clearly mistakenly thought LogGrad98 was saying that becoming violent is a symptom of Covid-19. Lol. How else do we interpret that?! I thought you were an intelligent guy? Why can you not simply admit you misinterpreted what we are saying? It’s not the end of the world to admit you were wrong. I am not going to touch the points you raised, since you miss the boat altogether on the points we are making. And so many are common sense! Lol. Unemployment causes stress? Duh! Haha, you foolish man….

I will assume you still simply don’t get it. Lingering brain fog. Otherwise, I might start thinking you actually are just a troll.

 

[One Brow]

The difference were the very progressive, soft-on-crime district attorneys who were elected into power and essentially decriminalized crime.

Violent crime was not decriminalized.

In the earlier post I had an image of a shoplifter in San Francisco filling a trash bag in the aisles of a Walgreens.

Property crime has decreased, which runs counter to your soft-on-crime narrative.

I know you desperately want to find fault with anything other than democrat policies,

@LogGrad98 isn't the one sounding desperate here.

 

[One Brow]

When you reduce police forces and reduce prosecutions, crime goes up.

Violent crime also went up where police forces/prosecutions went up, and property crime decreased everywhere.