Published on September 25, 2024, 12:26 am

In the presidential debate anchored by ABC moderators alongside Kamala Harris, a brief altercation occurred within moments as Donald Trump rebutted. This noteworthy instance emerged when David Muir ended his brisk ‘fact-check’ concerning the country’s crime rate, attempting immediately to redirect the discourse towards Kamala Harris, intending to sideline Trump’s response. Despite this stratagem, Trump managed to speak his piece against which the moderator could offer no rejoinder.

When presumptive moderators step into the ring of debates with political runners, there is an expectation for cross-questioning. Yet when met with a methodical counterpoint from Donald Trump in relation to FBI data-driven talking points on crime rates, Muir had no argumentative comeback but sheepishly changed conversation course back towards Kamala Harris.

The explicit point here is that Trump stated nothing other than actual facts.

Earlier in summer, the FBI disseminated its Quarterly Uniform Crime Report indicating falling crime rates; however, it overlooked data from New York or Los Angeles. Both NYPD and LAPD stand as the largest police departments nationwide but failed to report their data due to delayed commitment to new FBI data-tracking prerequisites. Interestingly enough, a third of nearly 6,000 US police agencies have followed this trend since 2022 without reporting crime statistics to the FBI – substantiated by honesty on part of the Bureau itself.

Recently, though, according to newly published annual reports from FBI inclusive of figures corresponding more than 95% of country’s populace – NYPD and LAPD included—an increase in car thefts by around 20% was noted between 2022 and 2023—a stark growth indeed—while overall violent crime had reportedly decreased by about 3%, homicides witnessing a sizable drop by over 10%. In case of rape incidents as well, reported rates dropped close to an imposing figure of 10%. Property-related offenses showed a drop too at approximately 2.5%.

News outlets strongly influenced by the Left chose to highlight this news, showcasing it as upholding validity for Kamala Harris and her debate rival, David Muir.

Understanding this report requires keen consideration of several aspects. Firstly, various major police departments like NOPD and LAPD have fallen short in reporting demographic details related to these felonies to the FBI. If you explore these departments on the FBI’s website, no insight into race or gender of culprits or their victims can be gleaned. For most netizens without exerting much thought interpret this as a dereliction on part of NOPD and LAPD to report violent crimes whatsoever. This isn’t accurate since they indeed reported such criminal offenses but left out information about its perpetrators or victims.

Despite efforts made by my producers to seek clarification from FBI, NOPD or LAPD over missing data, no acknowledgment was furnished.

On a closing imperative note, while MSNBC along with mainstream sources have endeavored truthful representations of FBI tallies – if faith is held strong that the Bureau’s data wholly captures unfolding incidents across precincts – then indeed it is a signal that the country was safer than previous year -a welcoming development. On the other hand, in actual reality this doesn’t capture every transpiring crime event anywhere close enough. As the MSNBC reports admits—law enforcement agencies become cognizant about crimes only if it gets reported and relayed by victims themselves failing which no action follows unless homicide comes into question where reporting usually takes place due to limitations in hiding corpses—a grave lacunae with regards to prevailing numbers appears.

Succinctly put, misleading proclamations unmasking a supposedly less violent America burgeoning under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stand contradicted considering multifarious indications elucidating an increasingly perilous nation inhabited under their jurisdiction.