It does seem that way. Violent crime in us cities is at historic lows, despite a small uptick in the past year or two. You have to assume anyone making a fuss over it is doing it for political reasons.
> Violent crime in us cities is at historic lows, despite a small uptick in the past year or two.
It might take some years to put the current numbers into proper context, and maybe it's technically accurate that things aren't as bad as say the roughest part of the 70s, but as a current big city resident, this definitely feels like gaslighting given the actual lived experience. Friends have gotten mugged. People here have changed their behavior: many people are no longer wanting to take the subway without a friend.
> Major crimes in New York City spiked nearly 60% in February compared to the same month in 2021 -- a large majority occurring in a small swath of the metropolis -- as Mayor Eric Adams rolled out his plan to combat gun violence and crime in the city. The New York Police Department tracked increases across every major crime category. The city recorded a 41% increase in overall major crime through the first months of 2022 compared to the same period last year, including a nearly 54% increase in robberies, a 56% increase in grand larceny incidents and a 22% increase in rape reports, the data shows.
That seems irrelevant given that this is about one specific US city, not US cities in general. SF has gotten significantly worse in the past few years.