Crime is consuming the United States
104: Without rule of law, everyday people suffer
Crime is becoming a major problem
Morning kings, lords, shawtys, and legends.
Wednesdays are for spicy posts.
We spend quite a bit of time analyzing the macro environment and markets and expect to have to cover much more content as the War in Ukraine escalates and the chances of a nuclear incident grow with each day.
With all of this in mind, I wanted to touch on a new topic that we’ve broached at a high level before but have never fully dug into.
Crime in the United States
And it just so happens that the last several years have been crazy years for crime in the United States. In 2020 the murder rate in the US rose by nearly 30%—the country’s largest-ever recorded annual increase. It has not fallen significantly since.
Just last week in Queens, New York 61 year old Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, a seasoned veteran of the New York City Emergency Medical Service, was stabbed over 20 times and killed in broad daylight by a man.
The video was horrendous.
Just recently the New York Transit Authority announced the installation of 2 cameras in each subway car. Governor Kathy Hochul said recently “You think Big Brother is watching you on the subway?” Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday.
“You’re absolutely right. That is our intent.”
And yet — the city suffers every day from violent crime and thugs who get released hours after being detained.
This comes on the heels of various other crimes over the last two years including:
Waheed Foster, 41, was still on his parole for an assault rap when he was arrested twice for misdemeanors in August but instead of being held on the parole violation a judge in NYC freed the career criminal and he viciously beat Elizabeth Gomes in a subway, nearly blinding her in her right eye
A 41-year-old man was shot in the head and seriously injured near the Frederick E. Samuel apartments (NYCHA) on the 100 block of West 144th Street
A 43-year-old man aboard a southbound L train near the Atlantic Avenue station around 8:50 p.m. got into a fight with another man, who fatally knifed the victim in the neck and body.
A 21-year-old St. Louis tourist was accosted and raped inside a New York City subway station by a man near 42nd Street
A 25-year-old woman was fatally shot in the East Village in September
A Queens woman randomly slashed and cut an 82-year-old doorman in the head with a machete on Stone Street and Broadway before blinding him with bear spray in September (NyPost)
A tourist was celebrating his 30th birthday when he was assaulted, slashed in the face, and robbed over the weekend in Times Square.
Unless you’re a rich progressive with no common sense and critical thinking skills New York is a hells-cape at the moment.
But it’s not just New York, Philadelphia is seeing murder rates not seen since the 1990s, Los Angeles is dealing with insane amounts of looting, and other US cities can’t seem to explain the jumps in gun violence, murders, and violent crimes.
New York is suffering from sustained violent crime levels. Since the beginning of the 2022 rape went up 63% (980 to 1,597), Robberies went up 24%, Major felonies in the transit system went up by 51%, and Hate crimes increased by 35% to name a few (The Gothamist).
In total the NYPD received 131,199 such calls through the end of September - about 500 per day - an increase from 128,488 over the same period last year.
Robberies/theft has also spiked 37 percent, and grand larceny is up 43 percent. (NYPost).
What I have noticed in some of my professional and social circles, especially from progressive people, is a dismissal of the facts and almost an ambivalence towards the crime itself.
“Oh that’s just New York, people are crazy”
“It’s not as bad as people are saying”
“Don’t be an alarmist”
It’s truly bizzare to witness how this ambivalence/ignorance plays into the breakdown of society we are seeing in the post pandemic days alongside sky high inflation, cost of goods, and a general anti institution sentiment from everyday people.
While there is a camp of people that very much understand WHY crime is rising and want to deal with it effectively there is another camp of people that continue to excuse criminals, deny the facts, and push for more pro crime policies that quite literally return violent and repeat offenders right back onto the street.
Our goal is to paint the true picture of where crime stands in the US today and how you can avoid it, deal with it, and why we think it’s definitely going to get worse.
I will cover this post in several parts:
Personal experience in NY/big cities with crime
How did this happen?
Why it will get much worse and how to avoid it
Crime among others things is an interesting topic because it directly relates to your worldview.
Do you think all people are inherently good? Or are you mature and sensible enough to realize that there will always be bad actors that do not follow rules, terrorize other people, and do bad things. It’s really quite that simple.
Unfortunately for some reason (we will speculate as to why shortly) the United States has many cities and regions where crime is not only tolerated but also in some ways aided.
The United States in 2021 had an estimated murder rate that hit levels not seen since the Clinton administration and the trend shows no signs of slowing.
We’ll walk through a personal anecdote, the worsening situation across the country as well as small things you can do to try and avoid the wanton violence.
My First Hand Experiences
I’ve briefly touched on this story before but it’s worth repeating since it was one o the main reasons I eventually decided to leave the city and pursue a life that:
a.) was in a region with good law enforcement
b.) allowed someone to be defensive
c.) had more room and peace of mine
The point of this story is give you some context. As someone who lived in NYC for 7 years and saw all kind of altercations, homeless, vagrants, etc. my observations are valuable because what happened to me in 2021 was unlike anything I had ever seen or experienced in the city before.
When I was threatened by a man in New York last year, he followed me, charged at, and threatened to kill me. I’m 6 foot 6, played D1 sports, and have olympic weight lifted since 8th grade.
Point being - I’ve historically deterred physical altercations in life even from the likes of god tier insane homeless dudes in San Francisco.
This guy didn’t care about any of that, chose to engage, and was extremely threatening as soon as he saw me at around 7am on a quiet morning.