If you had never spent time in a large U.S. city and everything you knew came from Fox News segments, you might have an extremely dystopian vision of urban life: one where people are mugged and carjacked on poorly lit Batman movie sets, gas stations and storefronts are torched and looted by “woke mobs,” and drug kingpins in drag are hanging out on street corners, offering fentanyl-laced candies to passing kindergartners.
Having fully bought into their own narrative about the crime wave afflicting blue cities, and supposedly only blue cities, Fox News sent reporter Johnny Belisario out to talk to some real Seattle residents about what it’s like to dodge bullets and fight off carjackers on a daily basis. In a segment that began with the confusingly worded chyron “Crime and Drugs Are Now Expectations in Dem Cities,” Belisario bravely walked the streets of the “progressive hellscape,” as host Jeanine Pirro called it. He did not find what he expected, though, as everyone he met countered and ridiculed his absurd preconceptions.
“I’ve never seen any crime in Seattle,” one amused-looking and apparently unarmed man told him. “I’ve seen fun and laughter, and laughter and fun.”
“People out here are getting robbed and carjacked,” Belisario tried to convince one disbelieving woman.
“I’ve never heard of anyone getting robbed,” she told him. “It’s not a thing that just happens on the street.” She then mocked the reporter’s claim that he saw people “shooting up” while driving through town from the safety of his own vehicle. “Oh no! You were in a car! They were hurting you so bad! Oh no!” If Fox keeps airing segments of people laughing in their reporters’ faces, I might actually watch!
Unfortunately, it’s Fox. Back in the studio, Pirro, who thinks she knows better than people who actually live and work in the city, expressed shock at the residents’ “arrogance” and “ignorance.” Fellow fearmongerer Jesse Watters then agreed with her that these people were clearly in denial, explaining that the city’s demographics—highly educated, secular, LGBTQ-friendly—has something to do with it. (They will blame literally anything but guns.) He then started rambling about the “dark pall” that hangs over the city. Dude, that’s the weather! You need an umbrella, not body armor.
On a more serious note, violent crime has been trending up in most of the country in recent years, including in blood-red rural areas. The reasons are complicated but mostly have to do with pandemic-related disruptions and economic hardships, not to mention the widespread availability of murder weapons.
While conservatives love to spread the false narrative that blue cities have become more dangerous due to criminal justice reform efforts, the Brennan Center for Justice has receipts showing otherwise: Homicides have risen by comparable levels in rural areas and in cities run by Republicans, and red states had some of the highest levels.
While violent crimes have gone up in the past few years, those rates are still significantly lower than what was seen in the 1990s. This is probably why, in spite of a perception driven largely by media coverage, most people still feel pretty safe in their own communities. Yes, even in big scary cities run by Democrats.
If anyone is legitimately concerned about solving the problem and not just fearmongering, they might listen to the woman in the segment who valiantly tried to explain the root causes of crime to a reporter who had already written his story before unloading the microphone: “Crime is a social issue that could be solved by giving people their basic needs.” Louder for the Fox News viewers in the back!
(featured image: Fox News)
