By its own historical standards, America circa 2016 is a safe place. The country’s violent crime rate is about half of what it was in 1991. Cities, in particular, have become markedly less dangerous. Less than half as many police officers are killed in the line of duty today as in the mid-1970s. In 1968, Americans rated “crime and lawlessness” as the single most important domestic problem facing the nation. Today, according to Gallup, they rank “crime/violence” below issues like the economy, unemployment, racism and race relations, and dissatisfaction with government.
This would seem to be news to Donald Trump, who, speaking to voters in Michigan in August, offered a vision of a “new American future” in which “law and order will be restored.” CONT.
Beverly Gage (Yale), New York Times Magazine