Kerby Anderson

This country had a crime spike in 2021. The only real question is whether it will continue in 2022. Social commentators remind us that once law and order is lost, it is not easy to restore. How bad was this crime spike? The Uniform Crime Report details a rise in murders of around 29 percent. A dozen US cities set homicide records: Tucson, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio; Rochester, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Some of these cities are a surprise, but Portland, Oregon and St. Paul, Minnesota are not. These are places in the country where the city leaders called for defunding the police and then went ahead and did just that. Mayors in some of the cities who originally talked about defunding the police have now quietly decided to restore funding. Of course, homicide isn’t the only crime statistic on the way up. YouTube is full of videos of criminals breaking into stores and running off with stolen goods. Some of the videos show criminals in stores casually walking through the store picking up items and walking out. Store owners have tried to stop this rash of “smash and grab” by posting security. But you can see videos where they don’t try too hard to stop the pillaging since they don’t want to get hurt. Law enforcement is also experiencing what has been called the “Minneapolis Effect.” Proactive policing is declining because of so many anti-police protests. Arrests are down, and crime is up. As much as we would hope 2022 would be better than 2021, these trends won’t be easily reversed. We may see a continued crime wave before it can be stopped.