During last week’s Oklahoma gubernatorial debate Joy Hofmeister, the surprisingly competitive Democratic candidate, addressed Kevin Stitt, the Republican incumbent, who — like many in his party — is running as a champion of law and order.
“The fact is the rates of violent crime in Oklahoma are higher under your watch than New York and California,” she declared.
Stitt responded by laughing, and turned to the audience: “Oklahomans, do you believe we have higher crime than New York or California?”
But Hofmeister was completely correct. In fact, when it comes to homicide, the most reliably measured form of violent crime, it isn’t even close: In 2020 Oklahoma’s murder rate was almost 50 percent higher than California’s, almost double New York’s, and this ranking probably hasn’t changed.
Was Stitt unaware of this fact? Or was he just counting on his audience’s ignorance? If it was the latter, he may, alas, have made the right call. Public perceptions about crime are often at odds with reality. And in this election year Republicans are trying […]
What will it take before Americans restart their well regulated militias and provide their own law enforcement in the manner in which they did before there were police departments?
The damned Republicans will never vote to restrict guns the way Democrats and some Independents would. Who the hell needs a semi-automatic weapon except criminals?