President Trump told reporters: “Everything is messed up in New York, and the whole world is watching.” In his case, “There’s no crime. You know where the crime is? In the breweries where they come and rob every week.” As is his recent habit, he separates recently arrived immigrants. He claimed that they took away all the jobs, “mainly prisoners and people in mental hospitals.”
If you look at it through a sympathetic lens, you can see what Trump is claiming. Are they coming after me even though there is a real crime going on? But if we take a step back from that sympathetic perspective, we arrive at a more useful position. In other words, crime should be subject to accountability in general, rather than being assessed on a sliding scale.
For years, Mr. Trump has provided his base with a polarizing view of law enforcement. Local police are touted as an expression of loyalty and as a thin blue line that protects America from the salivating hordes of leftist mobs, urban criminals, and savage immigrants. But federal law enforcement is questionable and corrupt, and its position is intertwined with a years-long investigation into Mr. Trump at the federal level. With local-level prosecutions in Georgia and Manhattan, Mr. Trump has simply linked local district attorneys to his federal political opponents. (“By the way, what about this trial I’m going through?” he said in the warehouse. “It’s Biden’s trial.”)
But for now, the divergent views on this crime — that Trump and his allies are innocent political targets while liberal prosecutors overlook other criminals — are even further from reality than usual. ing.
According to most available indicators, crime has declined in recent years. That includes homicides, which, as The Wall Street Journal reported this week, have dropped significantly in some cities. In New York City, violent crime is down 3% year-to-date. Grand theft also decreased by 3%, but robberies increased by 4%.
But this is an election year, so as in 2020 and 2022, the warnings from Trump and his allies about criminal activity are everywhere and breathtaking.
“The next six months are going to be intense,” Republican Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake said at a rally over the weekend, The New York Times reported. She told listeners to be prepared. She said, “We will put on the full armor of God, and just in case, strap a Glock to our side.”
The New York Post, a constant outlet for fear-mongering about crime, reported that “Californians are hoarding guns as Border Patrol begins dumping thousands of migrants on the streets.” California conducted about 131,000 background checks in March, a process that typically precedes gun sales. In March last year, the number was 128,000. The previous month, in March, there were 129,000. In March 2021, there were 144,000 people.
None of this is to say that violent crimes don’t happen. they do. Rather, it should point out that the growing rhetoric about the dangers of crime does not match the reality of trends in crime data.
This rhetoric is juxtaposed with a willingness to give Trump and his allies a pass. An Associated Press poll conducted this month by NORC found that only a minority of Republicans believe Trump committed misconduct in the four charges he faces. Only 6% of Republicans think he acted illegally in the New York incident.
This idea that Trump is being subjected to unwarranted scrutiny and sanctions is something he has relentlessly promoted for obvious reasons, but it’s also spreading to his allies. On Tuesday night, Newsmax host Greg Kelly, the son of a former New York City police chief, encouraged his viewers to write letters to former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who is imprisoned in Florida.
Let’s all write a letter to Peter Navarro. He’s in prison, but it’s the perfect crime. Send him a note! (Message: We Care!) PS: There are no contraband items. pic.twitter.com/QSPjxcAAXK
— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) April 17, 2024
“He’s in jail and this is the perfect crime,” Kelly wrote on social media Wednesday morning. In reality, Mr. Navarro ignored Congressional subpoenas and was found guilty of contempt of Congress.
However, Navarro only obstructed the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which is not something that Trump supporters should be overly concerned about. Trump’s actions are similar. Oh, did he try to stop Joe Biden from becoming president?Why not focus on genuine criminal?
It all depends on how the criminal act is perceived. President Trump shrugs off his secret archives, but the specter of tattooed immigrants waiting on New York’s dingy streets persists. There’s nothing here or there about the former happening and the latter going wild. They are It’s not us, it’s them. They are They deserve to be policed, restrained, and punished. Not us. They are That’s what we should be worried about.
In Kali Lake’s world, you’re encouraged to walk down the street armed and with your head turned before you arrive at the courthouse to support Donald Trump during his criminal trial.
