The Guardian reports that “Murders in the US rose 10.8% last year, the biggest single-year percentage jump since 1971, according to data released Monday by the FBI.”
There is, you think, no way that this can be made into good news. But just how bad is it? Crime overall is down, and the murder rate is about half what it was back in 1991, when law and order was still a campaign theme and major concern among voters.
So, is this dramatic spike in the murder rate an anomaly? A one-off, as they say. Or does it represent the early stages of a trend. Are we on our way back to those bad old days?
The answer to this question would seem to be … who knows? There are experts out there telling us to stay calm. As, for instance, Jeffrey Butts, the director of the Research & Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who says, “You lost 50 lb. You gained back a couple. You’re not fat. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at your behavior, because the trend is not good.”
Which is to say, you shouldn’t panic…yet. But you might want to worry a little.
It is not especially reassuring when Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Lynch did not, however, “… mention the 10.8% increase in murders.”
Which is to say, the pols are already spinning the report. In this case by ignoring it. They manipulate the news to make themselves look good. It is what they do. President Obama continues to spin the glories of Obamacare even as insurers flee, rates and deductibles climb, and millennials refuse to sign up.
A spike of nearly 11 percent in the murder rate seems reason for serious worry no matter how you spin it or ignore it. And the news that black men are those most severely impacted makes it worse. And it is undeniably significant that “Baltimore saw the greatest increase in murders, with 133 more people killed in 2015 than in 2014, pushing the city to its highest-ever murder rate.”
“Law and order,” Trump said during the debate Monday night. We may be hearing that more and more.
