A big question I ask people is "Why do we feel less safe even though crime is at an all time low?" Not a lot of people have answers, and I think way too many people aren't aware of that fact. It's one of the safest times to walk through any downtown core, yet people feel the least safe they ever have.
The answer is the media.
It's not all of the media, it's editorialized news, opinion pieces, debate format shows, etc.
The thing is, I don't feel less safe walking down the street. I can't really relate to people who do. That drives the divide further.
That's definitely part of the problem. I had an incident recently where an older family member had a minor panic. Because I left my (mfg in 2006!!) vehicle running in the driveway while I ran inside. During the day. In a very safe suburban neighborhood. Just a flat out absurd concern and she leapt right to it, instantly. She's always been concerned, she's a grandma, but she wasn't pointlessly terrified like this years ago.
I think many of us don't realize how badly this irrational fear has taken hold, or maybe I should say how effectively this irrational fear has been deployed. Otherwise ~reasonable people are walking around thinking the worst is going to happen everywhere at all times, based on absolutely nothing - worse than nothing, it's based on weaponized deception.
That's really the problem. When I friends from small towns come and visit I can see they're on edge the entire time while I'm just doing what I do every day. Yes there's a person sleeping there. Yes someone is screaming a block down. There's traffic noise, and the subway isn't the cleanest - but it's normal, that's what I'm used to. It takes a bit of thicker skin, but once you realize nothing is really unsafe about it it gets easier. Problem is voters from tiny 20,000 population places vote with that fear already, and think that cities are unsafe. We can't bring everyone to the city and hold their hand.
Many of them still believe that cities are full of buildings burnt down by BLM and immigrants are raping people in the street. They will never visit, and thus will always believe this.
it's all vibes, you are way more likely to get hurt from a car crash than crime yet people have no problem driving.
Here in my city we just opened up a rail line extension. I've seen literally hundreds of comments saying it's not safe, all calling back to a stabbing in February. Which is horrific I know. But that's one death in a decade.
No one seems to know what to say when I call out the average 100 traffic fatalities every month in our state. That's just normal apparently, but city bad scary when 1 person in 10 years is killed
My ex spouse got an app that gave alerts every time there was anything going down in our neighborhood. They went from cautious to walk around at night to "omg we live in a crime riddled hellhole with people being murdered everywhere" and stopped going outside. People now have access to so much information, often explicitly designed to make you fearful, and we suck at statistics
Assuming the statements are correct, maybe it's because people feel less safe. Fewer people go outside which results in fewer crimes being committed.
That's actually a big thing I'm into, and especially with the urbanist movement. People in America are very isolated, we live in suburbia, we drive our cars to work, and we work with our tight group of coworkers. We don't have third places anymore where you meet the people who live around you, and most don't take transit and aren't in an urban core so you aren't surrounded by people like you. Our neighborhoods aren't mixed in terms of wealth either, so when you do see a neighbor, you're seeing a mirror of yourself - someone who could afford a similar home in a similar region, and probably is just like you. So everyone becomes the other, and everything becomes very scary. It's probably why I feel fine walking through downtown. Everyone around me are just people like me, and by going out it reinforces that.
Crime is down because there’s less cops to commit it lmao.
Are there numbers about police staffing being down I can look at?
Police staffing has been going down since black lives matter became a thing. They dont get the same unquestioned respect and love like they used too so no one wants to be a cop any more. This one doesn't give years but it says 5% over the last couple years. The change is bigger in larger more liberal cities. Chicago is down 13% since 2018 , san francisco which inspired this meme is down 20% since 2017 and all the mayoral candidates are falling over themselves to say they'll solve it even though crime is down.
A lot of departments can't even get qualified applicants, so many positions are there but going unfilled.
Yeah, but the restrictions are also getting loosened to fill some of the positions. So we're getting the people we never thought should be on the police force either 😬 at least that's the case in Chicago. It makes for a worse experience over time.
Don't get me wrong, there is so much reform that's needed still. If there's an emergency I am calling the police, and I'd like someone who knows what they're doing to respond.
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depends, which areas are they counting crime? Which areas are they counting police quitting?
Don't take the word of a meme for something like this. Look into how those statistics were counted.
(edit: Spelling error)
This article goes over a bit of both if you trust npr more than some random socialist propagandist but The trends for both are nationwide. Police staffing has been going down since BLM became a thing and public respect and love for cops went down. This one doesn't give years but it says 5% over the last couple years. The change is bigger in larger more liberal cities. Chicago is down 13% since 2018 , san francisco which inspired this meme is down 20% since 2017 while at the same time seeing a ~30% decrease in crime over the past year.
Crime is also down all over the country, home break ins have been steadily declining since 2018 when the police staffing "problem" started. Murders have also dropped 12% over the past year along with alot of other crimes
They would say it's because police are getting better at their jobs or something
Or maybe that fewer police = fewer crimes being caught and tracked for statistic purposes
...and if they can day that with a straight face, give them an Oscar!
(I say this as a kiwi looking from afar)
Just to play devils advocate here is crime going down because of underreporting (either from smaller budgets or corruption to boost the image of a town / department)
What's the source for this claim?
You could maybe argue that if the drop was only in small petty crime. Yeah a shopkeeper may stop reporting shoplifting after the 10th time the police don't respond. That under reporting goes down as the crime gets more serious. Your probably going to report a home break in to the cops even if you know they won't do anything since you're going to need a police report for insurance, home break ins have been steadily declining since 2018 when the police staffing "problem" started. This seriousness holds very true for murders which have dropped 12% over the past year
That's assuming the victims would be under reporting, if you're saying the police departments, government etc. Are under reporting then that's getting into conspiracy territory. Especially because we're seeing this trend reported across the nation so the conspiracy would have to be massive.
Also if the government had the ability to do this why would they start now? This idea isn't too complex so someone could have easily come up with it and started doing it a while ago. If that were the case we'd never see crime rates go up as the politicians would just under report every year and make it look like crime is going down. But we have seen reported crime go up, noticeably in 2022 , and instead of hiding that many politicians and police departments showcased it as a reason to Crack down on crime and increase there budgets.
well cant report crime if there is no one to report to no?