Crime in Los Angeles, California has fallen for the first time in five years — with a particularly noteworthy drop in homicides, which are on track to reach their lowest level in 50 years.
Crime is down in San Francisco and Oakland as well, according to the Los Angeles Times, after a rise in crime that many blamed on the state’s passage of criminal justice reform legislation, such as Proposition 47 in 2014, which allowed many offenders to leave prison early. Crime is also down in San Diego, according to local ABC affiliate KGTV.
The Times reported Saturday:
Violent crime decreased by nearly 4%, though it was still 1% higher than two years ago, according to preliminary statistics through Dec. 8.
Overall, crime was down in all categories in 2018, except personal theft, which rose 3%. Property crime decreased by 2%, after increasing each year since 2015.
A few areas of the city, notably gentrifying Compton, saw increased crime.
A criminologist interviewed by the Times “could not pinpoint a cause” for the crime drop, though she — and police — credited changes in police tactics that focused on winning the trust of local communities.
Not mentioned were: the surge in employment, especially among blacks and Hispanics; the decline of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which saw police back away from crime-fighting in some minority neighborhoods; and the more aggressive enforcement of immigration law by the Trump administration, which has targeted criminal illegal aliens as well as foreign gangs like MS-13.
Statistics reported earlier this year saw a general downward trend in crime across the United States.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.