In the North Jersey area, our news cycle is defined by the events in New York City. And much of that in the last year plus has been dominated by crime.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently received criticism from the extreme left of his state party who have blamed him for federal and state losses for highlighting crime too much. They believe that Republicans used the issue, especially cash bail reform, to their advantage.
Newsflash: they did. The GOP was unrelenting on that message. But the bigger issue was that even with data and legislative victories, the Democrats do not know how to talk about crime in a way that blunts what could be a Republican strength into a weakness.
The facts are that crime has risen across America—not just in urban areas or the New York television market. Yes, crime has risen in New York City since the pandemic began, but the city is much safer than it was in the 1990s, when there were more than 2,000 murders each year. Major crimes are up nearly 30%, driven by robberies and assaults. But murders are down this year by 13%, and shootings are down 15% according to city data.
Furthermore, New York nor New Jersey are in the top ten when it comes to violent crime rate per capita. In fact, New Jersey is the fifth lowest and New York is 10th lowest. And if you just go by the overall total, New York is fourth behind California, Texas and Florida.
Is anybody asking Govs. Abbott of Texas and DeSantis of Florida about their crime issues in the way Democrats have had to answer the same questions?
Let us look at one of the major issues in New Jersey in the last year: auto thefts.
Wealthy suburbs have been targeted for their expensive cars, including the next store neighbor of Gov. Phil Murphy. And these are not just random acts—these are crime organizations using juveniles to steal the cars because they know they will stay in jail.
But when the U.S. justice department recently made arrests in regards to an organized ring, national arrests, searches, and seizures took place in California, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia as well as New York and New Jersey.
Let’s contrast the two party’s messaging when it comes to response to defunding of police. Despite President Joe Biden emphatically stating in his State of the Union Address that police needed to be funded, not defunded and legislation brought by Rep. Josh Gottheimer to Invest to Protect, defunding the police is still used by Republicans in campaigns despite the evidence refuting it.
And as Murphy pointed out just days before the election, car thefts in September of this year were down 14% compared to the prior year and thefts were down 12% in October compared to October 2021. The Democratic governor credited the initiatives put in place for last year for the decrease.
Its was the type of message Adams should lean more into, saying that Democrats are strong on crime and should have campaigned on it in a much more forceful fashion.
“We voted for sensible gun laws. We voted to fund police officers, which the president has done, and yet we’ve allowed others to state that we’re just the opposite,” said Adams.
The facts are that GOP lawmakers routinely vote against common sense gun safety laws. The aforementioned auto theft arrests happened in some deep Red States like Oklahoma and Wyoming.
And the MAGA Republicans made their own calls to defund law enforcement this election cycle and continue to do so, calling for a budget reduction to the FBI due to their action of retrieving unsecured classified documents Donald Trump took to the Florida hotel he lives in.
But you were hard pressed to find Democrats talking about these issues on the campaign trail. They have too often played defensive instead of going on the offensive when the subject is crime.
After the death of George Floyd, reforms were rightly sought and enacted across the U.S. But now the time has come to make sure those reforms are working as intended and work to eliminate some of the unintended consequences. All voices should be heard, from the police to the communities they serve, equally and fairly.
Crime will always be an election campaign issue—it is in the DNA for Republicans as much as smaller government and lower taxes are. The extremists on the left need to understand that Adams is more in line with not just leadership in the Democratic party but a majority of Americans when it comes to the issue of crime in America.
Leadership for Democrats on this issue must be made forcibly by the centrists of the party; if not, they will always be on the losing side of the issue. 
NEITHER party is better on crime
BOTH Parties ARE themselves ORGANIZED CRIME
The government of the US and Nj and most other jurisdictions around the world are criminal syndicates that run protection rackets by extorting their victims (aka taxpayers) for money and resources and in exchange provide “protection” (police and military) . The behavior of the two major parties in the United States is exactly the same as two rival criminal mafia gangs fighting over control over a given territory
The left and right are just two wings of a giant bird of prey that is preying on you
If you disagree and object and disobey and fail to pay your protection money you get locked in a cage. If you sufficiently resist being arrested and locked in a cage the state reserves the right to kill you
Whos better on crime
Neither party ! Both parties ARE crimes in themselves
Unfortunately,Rs take the lead on crime so long as NY & NJ delay revising the fraught bail reform laws. Crimes involving hate, theft &/or violence – or the threat of violence – need to be dealt with forcefully. Bench warrants should be issued promptly when defendants fail to appear.
In my Opinion, Neither party is Strong nor weak on Crime!! See, they All go with the Flow & which way the Wind is Blowing at the Time!! It’s all about the Votes, about their Political Agendas & also about their Benefactor’s Special Interest’s at the Time!! Both Parties Rhetoric’s mostly mimic a lot of Feel Good measures to quell the Public..//
White Collar aka Corporate Criminals hurt the nation more, and are the main cause of unjustified poverty, neglect and an economy to no-where..Our Tax-dollars for their way of life,while they evade the common good through tax evasion schemes. Legalized theft.
Whether Adams is in line with majority opinion among people who listen to fear-mongering police propaganda or not isn’t going to change that tackling the root causes of crime (poverty, inequality, and fear) is always going to be more successful than exacerbating those root causes. Throwing people into prison (especially for-profit prisons) for being poor or homeless isn’t going to make them less poor when they’re done with their sentence.
Also, keeping people locked up while they await trial because they can’t come up with an amount of cash that makes the judge feel good doesn’t prevent crime or save the taxpayer money. The decision about whether to keep someone in jail while they await trial should be based solely on their likelihood of committing another crime in that time, not whether they have access to money.