In a year when the U.S. saw a slight drop in violent crime, two states, California and Florida, presented a striking contrast, each bucking the national trend but in opposite directions.
According to a recent FBI report, which was further analyzed by Cully Stimson, a Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the two states’ diverging crime rates can be traced back to their differing approaches to governance and law enforcement.
Stimson told Fox News Digital, “If [California] had law and order DAs, if you had a governor of California – like previous governors, including Reagan – who were pro-law enforcement, pro-law and order, you wouldn’t have the disparity between Florida and California in terms of crime rates.”
The latest FBI crime data shows that violent incidents across the country dropped by 1.7% in 2022 compared to 2021.
This category of crime includes offenses like rape, robbery, and homicide.
In more specific terms, the nation saw a 6.1% decrease in murders and a 5.4% decrease in rape incidents last year.
Overall, the country seems to be returning to pre-pandemic crime levels, as the violent crime stats for 2022 were only slightly higher than those of 2019.
However, California and Florida showed trends that deviated sharply from the national average.
Florida saw a remarkable 32% decline in violent crimes last year compared to 2019, and a 23% decrease when compared to 2021.
California, on the other hand, experienced a 13% increase in violent crimes compared to 2019 and a 3.8% uptick compared to the previous year.
This FBI report is based on a new recording program that started in 2021, known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
It aims to give a more detailed picture of crime, including information about the types of weapons used and more demographic data about victims and perpetrators.
While only about 63% of police departments provided data in 2021, making it less reliable, the 2022 data is more robust, with over 83% of police departments participating, covering 93.5% of the U.S. population.
Stimson, who has also authored reports on crime for the Heritage Foundation, emphasized that violent crime is largely concentrated in big cities.
His earlier study refuted the Democratic claim that America has a “red state murder problem” by showing that 27 out of the top 30 American cities with soaring homicide rates were led by Democratic mayors and included “at least 14 Soros-backed or Soros-inspired rogue prosecutors.”
In his study, Stimson found: “There were 2,554 homicides in those 30 cities through June 2022. In the 14 cities with Soros-backed rogue prosecutors, there were 1,752 homicides, representing 68 percent of homicides in the 30 top homicide cities in the United States.”
California had three cities—Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco—on the list of cities with high homicide rates.
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Florida had just one city, Jacksonville, with a homicide rate of 6.8 per 100,000 people as of last June.
Notably, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon and San Francisco’s former DA Chesa Boudin, both financially backed by liberal billionaire George Soros, have faced scrutiny for their lenient approaches to crime.
Boudin was even recalled from office last June over his policies.
In contrast, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has adopted a “law and order” stance.
Stimson pointed out that Florida’s constitution allows the governor to remove elected officials who are not performing their duties well.
DeSantis used this power to suspend two district attorneys, Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell, for failing to enforce state laws.
Both had previously received financial backing from Soros.
Stimson underscored the importance of district attorneys, stating, “The DA is the gatekeeper to the criminal justice system … So it’s important to give credit to the governors, where they create a culture of lawfulness across the state, or a culture of lawlessness.”
In summary, the differing crime rates between California and Florida can largely be attributed to the contrasting approaches of their respective leaders and law enforcement policies, as reflected in the recent FBI data and analyzed by experts like Stimson.
