A New Crime Wave? - With Jason Riley

According to The New York Times: “The United States experienced its biggest one-year increase on record in homicides in 2020, according to new figures released by the FBI, with some cities hitting record highs.” And as for 2021, while we don’t yet have complete data, it so far appears that this homicide surge has continued well into this year as well. So, tragically, this isn’t going away soon. Much of the press coverage has focused on the connection between this crime surge and the pandemic. But did this crime wave begin well before the arrival of the Covid-19? Back in January, we dedicated an entire episode to this topic with Reihan Salam and Rafael Manguel of the Manhattan Institute. The title of that episode was “Is New York Over? Crime and the City” (01/22/21; Episode #8). Given the new crime statistics just released, we wanted to revisit this problem. It’s especially timely given the emergence of Eric Adams. Adams has been outspoken about confronting the crime wave in the City. Much, of course, remains to be seen. To help us understand what is going on, we check in with Jason Riley. Jason is a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, where his weekly column, “Upward Mobility,” has run since 2016. He is also a member of the Journal’s editorial board and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Jason is also the author of four books, including:  “Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders” (2008); “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed” (2014); and “Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell” (2021). Jason has had a long career in journalism.  He started at the Buffalo News and USA Today, before moving to the Wall Street Journal. Jason has written about public safety, policing, and the future of our cities. He has also written extensively about identity and intersectional politics. We close with a discussion of Jason’s commanding biography of Thomas Sowell.