Partners in Crime
On the Contrary: While homicide is down, partisanship remains at record highs
Recently, Newsweek readers participated in an exercise to determine the fairness of two crime-related stories. The first story was about the unexplained death of Nolan Wells, a Black teenager found on a Mississippi barrier island after a Fourth of July boat trip. There is no one charged for his death.
The second story examined whether President Donald Trump's decision to declare a crime emergency in Washington and deploy the National Guard one year prior actually yielded results. Readers rated this story as leaning right. Newsweek readers also rated the Wells story as leaning left.
Contrary to expectations, the latter article dedicated a significant portion of its content to explaining why Trump may not be the one to credit for the perceived success. While overall crime rates have decreased by 20% in Washington, and violent crime by 33%, there are still concerns about aspects such as violent crime increasing by 4%, assaults with dangerous weapons, and the fact that other cities achieved similar results without the National Guard's intervention.
The article suggests that it might be beneficial to assign political affiliations to various events. For instance, Ben Crump, representing Nolan Wells' family, can be labeled as Democrat, while the National Guard can be associated with the Republicans. The unexplained death of Wells is linked to Democrats, and the decreasing crime rate is attributed to Republicans.
However, the facts paint a different picture. According to FBI statistics from April 2025 to March 2026, violent crime has decreased by 9.1%, murder by 18.2%, and robbery by 18.8%. Property crime is down by 12.1%. Republicans can feel proud of this accomplishment, as President Trump campaigned relentlessly on this issue and spent the past year claiming vindication for his actions.
Nonetheless, it is crucial to acknowledge that violent crime had already started declining under President Joe Biden's administration. In 2024, violent crime had already decreased by 4.5%, and murder by 14.9%. This presents a rare instance where a genuinely commendable national trend exists, for which everyone can feel proud, regardless of their political leanings.
Written by urgent.news from Newsweek's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
