Policing.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Violent crime is on the rise. Not everywhere and not evenly: The problem is concentrated in particular neighborhoods of particular cities, and many categories of crime show declines even as gun offenses and murder have surged. But there's anxiety on the streets that hasn't been felt in years or decades. Just last weekend, Chicago saw 56 shooting victims, nine murders, including a 3-year-old boy, and the public beating of an alderman.

Progressive journalists and pundits have mostly downplayed the trend. A recent report by the Biden-allied Third Way thinktank rejected "a narrative of lawlessness, chaos, and surging crime" on the grounds that "the spike in murder is unique to murder." It's hard to understand why this is supposed to be comforting. A poisoned meal is still deadly, even it's perfectly healthy apart from the arsenic.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.