For years now there has been a long-promoted talking point in the press that crimes have gone down in this country during the Biden years. This claim has been in defiance of surges of violence in places like New York and D.C., the drugs and affiliated crimes with the mounting homeless problem in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the ongoing reality of store chains closing locations due to perpetual shoplifting going unaddressed and unabated.
Yet the press has tried to sell us on the concept that things have been calming across the nation and that claims of criminality spreading is the result of Republican doom-saying for the sake of the election. Much like the rosy fable of the economy being strong, despite the financial pains felt by so many, the press promise of a safer nation continues. It was even a feature during the presidential debate when Donald Trump had to haggle over this, not with his opponent Kamala Harris, but with moderator David Muir.
It has all been a statistical ruse. Back in April we detailed how flawed the national crime statistics had become. A new crime accounting system put in place by the FBI meant that scores of police departments from major cities were incapable of uploading their data to this new federal platform. When cities such as New York and Los Angeles - and well over one-quarter of all departments - were not providing their data it stands to reason how the crime rate would show a decrease. You could see when this problem developed, as we showed when the FBI stats diverged from the other federal crime data, the National Crime Victimization Survey.
The FBI had been issuing its annual crime numbers based on a nebulous tabulation process. The Bureau makes estimates based on data from select cities and extrapolates it to a nationwide rate, but this becomes far less accurate when close to one-third of agencies are not even participating. Then factor in cities where district attorneys downgrade crimes, and cities like New York and Chicago where mass departures from police departments have led to depress responses to 911 calls.
Now we learn that the FBI is finally catching up with its backlogged data, and new metrics are being reported. At Real Clear Investigations they noted a very quietly entered notation in the 2023 report saying simply the stats from the previous year had been updated. That becomes a heavy euphemism when you see the new numbers.
Where the initial report had the violent crime rate in the U.S. dipping by -2.1%, the updated numbers show a stark change – violent crime is now shown to have increased by 4.5%. This represents a stark change, and yet the FBI has made no other public announcement about this revision, and the press is content to continue to push its preferred narrative, seemingly resting on the older reports from The Bureau.
This level of revisionism follows other similar actions from this administration. Take that glowing economy they insist upon, where monthly job statistics are loudly touted as positive, and then almost assuredly being revised downward sometime later, to zero fanfare. Last August the 2022 jobs figures were revised down by well over 300,000, and the 2023 figures were off by a staggering 818,000. Those were down from the already downgraded monthly totals.
And now we see this practice taking place with crime stats. The takeaway shows that the press is more concerned with propping up the image of the administration rather than “Holding those in power accountable,” as they love to say when quoting their mission statement.
When we at Townhall ask about the validity of government reports, and cite data points and other documentation to call the accuracy into question it is not likely to generate curiosity and investigations. Instead caustic accusations are the norm, because we dared to pose questions and challenge the messaging. It is as if the press is trying to curry favor with those in power.