by John Branston
Crime is down in Memphis and across America, and anyone who says they know why probably doesn’t.
As they say, opinions are like belly buttons: everyone has one. But opinions can change, just as the people whose
opinions matter can change.
So it is with the influential New York Times editorial page.
This was the headline on the lead editorial this week: This Is Why Crime Keeps Falling
The blah-blah: “America’s leaders typically rush to move on from a crisis once it is over, but we want to pause
on the recent surge of violent crime and its reversal. We see two central lessons from this period that can help
policymakers reduce crime even further and make progress against other societal ills.”
This was the NYT headline in an editorial on January 1, 1995: NYC Crime Falls But Just Why Is a Mystery
The blah-blah: “Crime in New York City is dropping fast. Murders which had been falling gradually over the
three years, dropped sharply by nearly a fifth in 1994. Over all, 350 fewer people were slain in 1994 in the year before,
and 650 fewer than in 1990, when murders, many of them fueled by the crack epidemic, reached a peak.”
Note the cocksure tone of this week’s offering and the kittenish tone in 1995 (when the decline was much greater
than it was in the last few years). From mystery to mystery solved! What changed, of course, was the people writing the
editorials, the collective “voice” of the “we” and the polarizing of media conversation in our age. Nobody clicks on an
“on the one hand on the other hand” thumbsucker; would-be influencers must slash and burn with righteous indignation.
Changing editorial writers is a good thing. Changing the institutional “we” is a good thing. Falling violent crime
rates is a good thing. But it has to be noted that in Memphis, the crime rate per 100,000 population is still a lot higher
than it was ten years ago and higher than all of our peer cities.
Anyone who says they know for sure why is just giving an opinion.
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To read more John Branston’s posts, go to categories on the right side of this blog’s home page and select his name.
John Branston has been contributing to Smart City Memphis for four years. Before that he wrote columns, breaking news, and long-form stories for The Commercial Appeal, Memphis Flyer, Memphis magazine, and other print and online publications. He is author of the books Rowdy Memphis (2004) and What Katy Did (2017). He is a journalist and opinion writer. His stories are based on reporting, interviews and quotes supported by notes or a tape recorder. He has written about people who made Memphis what it is, for better and worse; about sleep issues and depression; about racquet sports; and about travel in the South and West.
John Branston is on Substack. To read his unpublished short fiction, essays, and travel writing go to substack.com. If you like the entries please share. If you don’t don’t. Topics include Easter, redemption, revelation, Katy, crime, sex and violence, brawlers, gators, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Ted Williams, Jayne Mansfield, Florida, John Muir, Montana, Missoula, Buffalo Bill, Larry McMurtry, Shelby Foote, Nathan Bedford Forrest, football, Ford, Michigan, school desegregation and others.
