Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

muriel_volestrangler

(104,720 posts)
6. Meanwhile, Ohio and South Carolina are sending their National Guard, despite having cities with worse violent crime
Tue Aug 19, 2025, 05:18 AM
Aug 19

than Washington DC. Philip Bump - used to work for the Washington Post, but he's too honest for them (can't show the zoomable maps here - there's no paywall on the page, so see them there) :

More people in Ohio need protection from violent crime than there are people in D.C.

But now the pretext wavers. If there really is an emergency in D.C. that necessitates the use of the National Guard and other federal agencies, that would suggest that crime in D.C. is exceptional. (It would also suggest that crime is rising, which it isn’t; quite the opposite. But if you note that it’s falling, then you find yourself under attack for downplaying the existing crime, even when you aren’t. These are the traps that the pro-Trump bubble uses to keep reality at bay.) Data released by the FBI earlier this month, though, shows that a lot of other places — including places in those three states — had higher rates of violent crime and homicide than did D.C.

I went ahead and made some interactive maps using the FBI data. Cities shown in pink below are ones where the violent crime rate in 2024 was higher than in D.C. Zoom in if you need to.
...
The FBI reported that fully 43 cities in those three states had higher rates of violent crime in 2024 than did D.C. More than 1.2 million people live in those cities, including more than 900,000 in Ohio alone. Yet that state’s National Guard is being deployed to D.C. to protect the capital’s 700,000-odd residents. Half a million Ohioans live in cities with higher homicide rates than D.C. Unfortunately for them, they won’t get to see National Guard troops on their streets — just on their TVs, standing around outside the Lincoln Memorial.

Or maybe the lesson here is that this isn’t really about crime at all.

https://www.pbump.net/o/more-people-in-ohio-need-protection-from-violent-crime-than-do-people-in-d-c/?s

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Republican Gov. Phil Scot...»Reply #6