Dumb on Crime

We’ve got at least six national emergencies on our hands, and crime and immigration are not among them. You wouldn’t know it watching the political ads Republicans are airing all across the country this election season.

The ads depict a nation—and your neighborhood!—overrun by violent criminals and foreigners flooding across porous borders. They are heavy on dramatic imagery and light on truth, like the one showing “actual violent crimes caught on camera” at viewers’ doorsteps when the video footage was actually shot nearly 3,000 miles away.

Ads like this hammer home the stock GOP claim that crime is spiraling out of control, and it’s because Democrats are “soft” on crime and should be replaced by “tough” Republicans. Crime did rise pretty sharply throughout the country once the pandemic hit in 2020—up 28% from 2019 to 2020—for a variety of complicated reasons. The spike was driven by gun violence more than any other factor, as gun homicides rose 35%.

None of the GOP’s ads bring this up,…