New York’s homicide rate dropped sharply after 1990 even as the poor share of population rose slightly.
Being mayor of New York comes with lots of media attention, but anyone who has held the job can tell you that the real power is in Albany, the state capital, where the governor and Legislature hold major sway over everything from the subways to the public schools.
Mayor Eric Adams was back in Albany this month asking his state overlords to rethink bail-reform measures passed in 2019 that protect crime suspects from pretrial detention. The number of shoplifting complaints in New York City rose by 45% in 2022 to more than 63,000, according to New York City Police Department data. The mayor sees an obvious connection that too many of his fellow liberal Democrats willfully ignore.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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