I agree with pretty much everything in the article, but would add that the media, local and national, shape the public's perception of crime just as much as aggressive policing. I live near Chicago, yet another city governed by a Black mayor (Brandon Johnson) where crime is declining. But you wouldn't know that from local news broadcasts, which usually lead with live coverage of at least three violent incidents because the story "there were ten fewer murders in the city than on this date a year ago" doesn't generate many exciting visuals. So suburban and rural voters across America believe that nearby big cities are war zones and will quietly (or not-so-quietly) approve when Trump imposes martial law on every municipality with a population over 500,000.
We have an enormous amount of people working full time that struggle to maintain financial equilibrium. One emergency like a health problem and they are under water with little in the way of resources to regain their footing. That is getting worse.
We talk about the identity crisis with young men, but don’t address the biggest root cause. These guys will never be able to buy a house, have a decent car or get the girl of their dreams.
Then we clutch our pearls about the complexity of solving problems with young men.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25. And at the other end of the scale we have individual billionaires with hundreds of billions of dollars!
Ya think these young men don’t seethe with resentment about that?
Do you believe these people feel like they have a stake in America? The disenfranchisement of young men in the USA is a tinder box. If we want to lower the crime rate, start there.
Trump’s take over of Los Angelas and Washington D.C. is a dictatorial, authoritarian move that has nothing to do with crime. The more crime is discussed, the more the public accepts that deploying our own military against our own citizens on American soil is normal. Our country is being turned into a police state while the press and elected leaders dither over whether crime is a problem.
Trump's policies is cutting community policing strategies in my area. Getting to know your neighbors. After school programs for kids. Education. Food stamps. Food banks. He's cutting all the programs young people need to stay off the streets.
Not to mention the road Republicans have taken ALREADY led to opening concentration camps and masked goons assaulting people on the streets and draining our treasury to do this. Draining our fucking treasury not for healthcare or education or science or housing, but to pay masked goons to terrify us.
thank you, Paul, for calling out what's working my last nerve: that almost all coverage simply accepts GOP's insistence that dangerous projects like occupying Democratic cities is about stopping crime when it's transparently creating a police state under the false flag of addressing rampant crime. you're the first writer I've seen point out that the entire debate was instantly seized by the "but they do have a point" crowd and that almost nobody starts by calling out the truth, which is that it ain't about crime any more than DOGE was about "waste fraud abuse."
I don't understand why it's so difficult to call things by their names. and until we can do that consistently and clearly, we're failing to address reality. and that never works out very well. but it's great for the bringers of chaos and destruction. it makes their work so much easier to have help in their project from its victims.
an old saying from a number of Asian cultures: "They are the trees rooting for the wooden axe handle, because they think he's one of them" seems to apply. as long as we accept the obviously fraudulent premises of the current authoritarian administration, we're destroying our own efforts to resist them. the seeming prudence of admitting they have a point (when all they have is a fake premise) is us helping them destroy us.
how do we fight this? this "moderate bias" has us digging our own grave.
Paul Waldman may have the better argument on the best way to reduce crime but I’m not at all sure he’s got the politics right. If your political opponent picks a fight with you on a particular issue that ought to be a warning. It’s best not to fight on your enemy’s chosen turf.
I don’t live in America* but I’m pretty sure the accusation Democrats wanted to ‘defund the police’ did real damage amongst low information voters. It might be untrue but the more activist branch of the Democrats certainly helped it ring true. I’m pretty sure if you did a count you'd find they’ve made a lot more comments negative about police than they do about criminals. When they do it’s all too often “(Criticism of criminals) BUT (criticism of police or Republicans)”. You need a tin ear not to hear that the criticism of criminals is preliminary and secondary.
I’d say it’s unarguable that the median voter is better disposed towards police than criminals and in fact has a distinct animus towards the latter. Appearing that your preferences are the other way round is a serious political liability.
*Here in Australia in two recent state elections conservatives have won thumping big majorities in recent elections fighting on (pretty dumb) ‘tough on crime’ policies.
It’s sad. The wealthiest country in the world just increased taxes on and stripped benefits from the poor—to feed the wealthy. You just watched Congress do this. It should be obvious that the gerrymander-elected government does not serve its people. There is now no solution to anything until we tear this house down. We can rebuild it with rooms, food, and living wages for everyone. To fight, for you, 108 protest signs for your protests. This is critical for Occupied D.C. Many signs are revised to sing. 🎶. I recommend using a local printer, but national print companies offer great pricing, shipping included. There is time to get the lot printed for your protest group, assuming you have a gathering of 300 to 1,000. This would help fill the hands of the signless.
Brandon Scott was recently a guest on Chris Hayes’ “Why Is This Happening” podcast describing the Baltimore strategy. It’s a great model for how Democrats can talk about crime reduction.
I agree with pretty much everything in the article, but would add that the media, local and national, shape the public's perception of crime just as much as aggressive policing. I live near Chicago, yet another city governed by a Black mayor (Brandon Johnson) where crime is declining. But you wouldn't know that from local news broadcasts, which usually lead with live coverage of at least three violent incidents because the story "there were ten fewer murders in the city than on this date a year ago" doesn't generate many exciting visuals. So suburban and rural voters across America believe that nearby big cities are war zones and will quietly (or not-so-quietly) approve when Trump imposes martial law on every municipality with a population over 500,000.
Economic inequality is the elephant in the room.
We have an enormous amount of people working full time that struggle to maintain financial equilibrium. One emergency like a health problem and they are under water with little in the way of resources to regain their footing. That is getting worse.
We talk about the identity crisis with young men, but don’t address the biggest root cause. These guys will never be able to buy a house, have a decent car or get the girl of their dreams.
Then we clutch our pearls about the complexity of solving problems with young men.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25. And at the other end of the scale we have individual billionaires with hundreds of billions of dollars!
Ya think these young men don’t seethe with resentment about that?
Do you believe these people feel like they have a stake in America? The disenfranchisement of young men in the USA is a tinder box. If we want to lower the crime rate, start there.
The resentment is real and growing.
Centrist Democrats enable this.
Trump’s take over of Los Angelas and Washington D.C. is a dictatorial, authoritarian move that has nothing to do with crime. The more crime is discussed, the more the public accepts that deploying our own military against our own citizens on American soil is normal. Our country is being turned into a police state while the press and elected leaders dither over whether crime is a problem.
Trump's policies is cutting community policing strategies in my area. Getting to know your neighbors. After school programs for kids. Education. Food stamps. Food banks. He's cutting all the programs young people need to stay off the streets.
Not to mention the road Republicans have taken ALREADY led to opening concentration camps and masked goons assaulting people on the streets and draining our treasury to do this. Draining our fucking treasury not for healthcare or education or science or housing, but to pay masked goons to terrify us.
Excellent piece.
thank you, Paul, for calling out what's working my last nerve: that almost all coverage simply accepts GOP's insistence that dangerous projects like occupying Democratic cities is about stopping crime when it's transparently creating a police state under the false flag of addressing rampant crime. you're the first writer I've seen point out that the entire debate was instantly seized by the "but they do have a point" crowd and that almost nobody starts by calling out the truth, which is that it ain't about crime any more than DOGE was about "waste fraud abuse."
I don't understand why it's so difficult to call things by their names. and until we can do that consistently and clearly, we're failing to address reality. and that never works out very well. but it's great for the bringers of chaos and destruction. it makes their work so much easier to have help in their project from its victims.
an old saying from a number of Asian cultures: "They are the trees rooting for the wooden axe handle, because they think he's one of them" seems to apply. as long as we accept the obviously fraudulent premises of the current authoritarian administration, we're destroying our own efforts to resist them. the seeming prudence of admitting they have a point (when all they have is a fake premise) is us helping them destroy us.
how do we fight this? this "moderate bias" has us digging our own grave.
Paul Waldman may have the better argument on the best way to reduce crime but I’m not at all sure he’s got the politics right. If your political opponent picks a fight with you on a particular issue that ought to be a warning. It’s best not to fight on your enemy’s chosen turf.
I don’t live in America* but I’m pretty sure the accusation Democrats wanted to ‘defund the police’ did real damage amongst low information voters. It might be untrue but the more activist branch of the Democrats certainly helped it ring true. I’m pretty sure if you did a count you'd find they’ve made a lot more comments negative about police than they do about criminals. When they do it’s all too often “(Criticism of criminals) BUT (criticism of police or Republicans)”. You need a tin ear not to hear that the criticism of criminals is preliminary and secondary.
I’d say it’s unarguable that the median voter is better disposed towards police than criminals and in fact has a distinct animus towards the latter. Appearing that your preferences are the other way round is a serious political liability.
*Here in Australia in two recent state elections conservatives have won thumping big majorities in recent elections fighting on (pretty dumb) ‘tough on crime’ policies.
It’s sad. The wealthiest country in the world just increased taxes on and stripped benefits from the poor—to feed the wealthy. You just watched Congress do this. It should be obvious that the gerrymander-elected government does not serve its people. There is now no solution to anything until we tear this house down. We can rebuild it with rooms, food, and living wages for everyone. To fight, for you, 108 protest signs for your protests. This is critical for Occupied D.C. Many signs are revised to sing. 🎶. I recommend using a local printer, but national print companies offer great pricing, shipping included. There is time to get the lot printed for your protest group, assuming you have a gathering of 300 to 1,000. This would help fill the hands of the signless.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/protest-sign-sign-everywhere-a-sign
Brandon Scott was recently a guest on Chris Hayes’ “Why Is This Happening” podcast describing the Baltimore strategy. It’s a great model for how Democrats can talk about crime reduction.