President Donald Trump and his son Eric both took shots this week at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying crime has risen in the city under his leadership. That’s wrong, according to crime data kept by the New York Police Department.
Major felony offenses have dropped every year de Blasio has served as the city’s mayor, according to
New York Police Department data. Other felonies are down. Misdemeanors are down.
Arrests are down.
According to FBI crime data, New York City had a lower violent crime rate than all but two other cities with a population over 1 million in 2017.
Nonetheless, in a Twitter spat with de Blasio on May 14, Eric Trump claimed that under de Blasio’s leadership “crime is up” in New York City.
Eric Trump
✔@EricTrump
Spare me? First you have never created a job in your life. Second, our great city has gone to [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] under your leadership. Crime is up, the men & women of the NYPD detest you, homelessness is rampant, our streets are dirty and people are leaving our city in record numbers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio
✔@NYCMayor
Spare me. You and your dad have spent decades evading taxes and stiffing your workers.
NYC’s Green New Deal is one law the Trumps won’t get away with breaking.
Fix your buildings or pay the price.
Two days later, de Blasio, a Democrat, [URL='https://www.npr.org/2019/05/16/712492409/new-york-city-mayor-bill-de-blasio-enters-2020-democratic-presidential-race']announced his bid for the presidency. That prompted President Trump to sarcastically tweet that “if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man.”[/URL]
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
The Dems are getting another beauty to join their group. Bill de Blasio of NYC, considered the worst mayor in the U.S., will supposedly be making an announcement for president today. He is a JOKE, but if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man. NYC HATES HIM!
Whether “NYC HATES HIM! [de Blasio]” as the president claims, is a matter of opinion, of course. De Blasio was
reelected mayor in 2017 with 66 percent of the vote, but according to an April
Quinnipiac poll, 76 percent of New Yorkers didn’t want him to run for president, and only 42 percent approve of how he is handling his current job as mayor. .
We’ll get to some of the other claims made by the Trumps about de Blasio’s record, but let’s start with crime in New York City, which data indicate is historically low.
