With the mind-boggling rise in violent crime since the Democrats turned all policing policies over to BLM, the media have become obsessed with convincing us that it's all the fault of the pandemic. (At least they're not blaming it on Putin this time.)
In its coverage of the subway shooting by a rage-filled black nationalist last week, The New York Times inserted its pandemic theory of crime into nearly every update (emphasis added):
-- "Shootings in New York City rose during 2022's first quarter compared with the same period last year ... the continuation of a drumbeat of violence that emerged early in the PANDEMIC, and has not ebbed with the virus."
-- "This year's first three months have also seen rises in crimes like burglaries, robberies and grand larcenies compared to the same periods in 2020 and 2021, though experts warn against short-term comparisons, particularly during the statistic-skewing PANDEMIC."
-- "Mr. Lee said reports of attacks across the city, along with the violence that other Asian Americans in the city have experienced throughout the coronavirus PANDEMIC, have left him fearful."
(I'd like to know if Mr. Lee cited the pandemic or -- my guess -- the Times helpfully threw that in.)
-- "The city's police commissioner announced new figures last week that showed a 36% increase in major crimes and a 16% rise in shootings over the past year -- part of a rise in violence during the PANDEMIC."
No evidence is ever cited. The Times made no attempt to tie Frank James' personal pandemic experience to his outburst of homicidal racism. "The pandemic caused the crime wave" is just repeated in article after article, like the sleep conditioning of infants in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."
Except even in Huxley's dystopian world, the bureaucrats only needed to repeat an idea three times a week. The media authoritatively announce that the pandemic caused the crime wave about a thousand times a week.
A spate of shootings over the weekend led to another gusher of "The pandemic causes crime" sightings in the Times. Now it's not just crime generally, but specifically mass shootings: "Experts are pointing to multiple possible factors that could explain the upswing [in mass shootings], including the pandemic ..."
I wonder if that includes any of the experts who spent the first 2.5 months of the pandemic telling us that the lockdowns had had the wonderful effect of virtually ending violent crime! That is, right up until the day George Floyd was killed, whereupon white people became guilty for everything, and black people responsible for nothing, including their own criminal behavior.
Thus, on April 14, 2020, a month into "15 days to slow the spread," the Times stated matter-of-factly: "Violent crime has dropped precipitously." Two weeks later, on May 4, 2020, Politico reported: "Major crime has plunged during New York City's coronavirus lockdown, down 28.5% in the month of April."
Similarly, on April 23, 2020, The Denver Post reported that during the first four weeks of the pandemic, crime reports were down by a third, adding that "other large cities have seen significant drops in crime during the coronavirus."
The very day that Floyd died, Voice of America announced that major U.S. cities had "reported dips in burglary, assault, murder, robbery and grand larceny -- all due to stay-at-home orders and fewer opportunities for crime."
How about a bigger comparison? Are there any studies of crime during the pandemic from around the globe? Why yes, there are! A study by Cambridge University of crime rates in 27 cities across 23 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East found that stay-at-home orders during the pandemic "were associated with a considerable drop in urban crime."
Then, in a crazy coincidence invisible to every member of our media, on May 25, 2020, an innocent black man, just minding his own business, bothering no one, was killed by a cop in Minneapolis, and ...
BAM! As you may have seen in Twitter and YouTube videos (at least the ones that were not immediately removed by "moderators"), violent crime promptly exploded in cities across the nation.
Both the FBI and CDC report that murders were up 30% in 2020 -- the largest year-to-year increase in more than a century. The next biggest increase was back in 1968, when it went up by 12.7%. In 2021, murders were up again, 44% compared to 2019.
And it all started on the mystery date of May 25, 2020. From Jan. 1, 2020, to May 25, 2020, gun homicides increased by 14%, compared to 2019. (Democrats do control the cities.) But from George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020, through the end of the year, gun homicides shot up an astronomical 41%.
Obviously, therefore, one problem with the theory that the bacchanal of violence of the last two years is the pandemic's fault is that there is absolutely no evidence to support it.
As we've seen, right up until the hysteria over Floyd's death, the media were fairly bristling with stories about the salubrious effect the pandemic was having on crime. In addition, as a factual matter, gun homicides nearly tripled from the period before Floyd's death (B.F.) compared to the period after his death (A.D.)
A second major problem with the pandemic theory of crime is that it requires a complete mind-wipe of everything that happened in the months after Floyd's death: BLM. All Cops Are Bastards. Defund the Police.
Media in unison: We have no idea what you're talking about.
Here's a reminder:
-- Associated Press, May 29, 2020: "Minneapolis police station torched amid George Floyd protest"
-- New York Times, June 12, 2020: "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police."
-- 770 KTTH, Aug. 25, 2020: "Rioters tried to burn Seattle police alive, sealed door during fire at East Precinct"
-- In These Times, Dec. 15, 2020: "The Best Moment of 2020: The Burning of the Third Precinct"
Throughout all this, Democrats and the media celebrated as police budgets were slashed, officers' hands were tied, and crime after crime was decriminalized.
No wonder they want to blame the pandemic.
Still, there are less obviously false excuses for the current crime wave than the pandemic. (I'm assuming the truth is a non-starter for our media.)
You know what else happened in 2020? The Pentagon released photos of UFOs! How about replacing "the pandemic" with that? The media should start including clauses like this in their crime stories: "... a drumbeat of violence that emerged after the Pentagon released UFO videos" and "... part of a rise in violence the year UFO videos were released."
Seriously -- that's less unhinged than blaming the current, epic crime wave on "the pandemic."