Jacksonville’s name popped up in the Great Debate between America’s Best Governor and America’s Worst Governor Thursday, and the reference was not complimentary.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was trying desperately to defend the fact that people are fleeing his state and flocking to Florida.
So, he pulled up some crime statistics and attempted to portray the Sunshine State as a dangerous place to live.
That was when he hit Jacksonville by citing its homicide rate, which is higher than San Francisco’s.
We should note that the crime reporting system never has been considered accurate and that the FBI always has said its Uniform Crime Reports should not be used to compare cities.
But let’s say for the sake of argument that the figures are accurate.
Why is that?
Jacksonville has had many vigils and marches, where people go out in the street and protest murders, all well covered by the TV news crews. Why hasn’t that helped?
For years the city had the Jacksonville Journey, which was intended to help reduce crime and was costing at one point some $10 million a year. Mayor Donna Deegan wants to revive the program.
For several years Jacksonville has been using the Cure Violence program at a cost of millions of dollars. It is a new approach that claims to reduce violent crimes.
Each year the police force is expanded and given millions of new dollars, despite the fact that the number of calls and arrests are declining.
According to liberals, crime is caused by poverty. But the government is vastly increasing the amount of money it gives to people it says are poor.
Maybe the truth is that we don’t know why people kill other people or why more murders occur in one area than another.
Most people would agree that a propensity to murder others is a form of mental illness, and we know that five or six decades ago the Far Left began a successful campaign to depopulate institutions for the mentally ill. Perhaps reviewing and revising that policy decision would accomplish more than vigils and marches.
In the meantime, we should not conclude that the ruination of California is in any way comparable to the crime statistics in Jacksonville, or more than a debating device.
