CLAY: We’re joined now by Brooklyn-based columnist David Marcus. He has been writing about all the latest crime numbers all over the country. And, David, I feel like in many cases we are not talking enough about just how extraordinary the crime rise has been since 2019. Contextually, what jumps out to you as a way to illustrate the level of crime that we are seeing all over the country?
MARCUS: You know, I think one important aspect is that it’s no longer limited to the cities. I recently wrote a piece for Fox News about was really close to a broad daylight attack outside the Apple store in Greenwich, Connecticut. Anyone ever been to Greenwich, Connecticut? That doesn’t happen in Greenwich, Connecticut. But this is happening all over the country. Again, not just in places like New York and San Francisco where we’ve grown to anticipate it. We’re starting to see this in suburban areas that are introduced to it, and it’s frightening.
BUCK: David, I also saw this statistic, I mean, about the consequences now — the political and demographic or just population consequences — that we’re seeing in some major cities. Is it right that about a third of people in San Francisco have expressed a desire to leave the city they call home?
MARCUS: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. As shocking as that number is, I mean, obviously were that to happen, any city that loses a third of its population, it’s gonna be devastating. But look, man. I was there about a year ago walking around the Tenderloin. However bad people think it is, it’s a hundred times worse. I’ve never seen anything like it. I couldn’t believe I was in an American city. It was just streets lined with tents on both sides, people evenly shooting up, open-air drug market, no cops anywhere. It was a hellscape, man.
CLAY: So what is Joe Biden’s plan here? Right? I mean, part of it is to just hide what’s actually going on from a crime perspective, hope people get distracted by Trump with Mar-a-Lago, the raid, and then focus on abortion. I mean, I think it’s Trump and abortion is going to be his plan. But is there any indication that any of this is going to get better, or are gonna have to undertake drastic 1990s-style new crime bills in order to get things fixed?
MARCUS: Well, look, I mean, Biden’s clearly trying — and the whole the Democrat Party for the most part are trying — to run away from their defund the police rhetoric. Oh, we never said that, that’s not what we meant. And he says, you know, we’ll give more money to the localities. The problem is that these nut job city councils hold hearings where they listen to these, you know, professors of criminology from Harvard, and instead of hiring cops, they hire social workers. And instead of enforcing laws, they send people to community courts where they get social services instead of jail time.
Yeah, absolutely we have to go back to late eighties and early nineties ideas like Broken Windows, like COMPStat, stop, question, and frisk. Why? Because they work u speaking to David Marcus, Brooklyn-based communist. David, Brooklyn is very, very deep blue. I’m just wondering if… I mean, it’s where Hillary Clinton set up her “Election Headquarters.” It makes some parts of Manhattan look almost politically sane by computer, although maybe that’s a little too much. But it’s definitely very, very left wing. Are you hearing from people who really, you know, neighbors, friends, colleagues, anybody in your vicinity out there in Brooklyn that this doesn’t get better until they stop doing the things that Democrats have been doing? Like, are you seeing the turning point yet, or have people not suffered enough?
MARCUS: I don’t know that they’ve suffered enough, but I am seeing signs of it for sure. Now, I live in a… I have a Republican member of Congress, Nicole Malliotakis who represents Staten Island and a part of Brooklyn that I live in.
BUCK: Oh, you’re in the…? Okay. That is… Just so everyone knows, that’s an unusual situation for Brooklyn, but there’s like a carved out area of it. Yes.
MARCUS: I have trucks with Trump flags on them where I live in Brooklyn. So that does exist. But, yeah, look, Malliotakis is almost certainly going to win her race against Max Rose for Congress here in Brooklyn and Staten Island. And I’m starting to hear a lot more optimism from state Republicans about Lee Zeldin. About three weeks ago when I was calling around trying to do stories on this, I was having people tell me, “Dave, there’s no way. Like, look at the voter registration numbers. Like, there’s no chance.” He’s been creeping back in the polls. He just dropped, if people haven’t seen it, a devastating ad that’s just clip after clip of brutal violence in New York City blaming Kathy Hochul. So I have a little hope that Zeldin can win — and if Zeldin does win, we might be able to start chipping away at these bail reform laws. So, yeah, enormously consequential election for New York State and New York City.
CLAY: What about elsewhere? You know, we were just talking about the importance of the Senate races, right? What’s gonna happen in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona? But we almost got last year, New Jersey almost flipped. And I feel like a lot of people totally missed that. We obviously celebrated the fact that Glenn Youngkin won and sent a message in Virginia. Are you getting the sense as you look at this crime issue…?
In my home state of Tennessee we had Eliza Fletcher, a how many that was out for a jog in the morning that got murdered, totally random act of violence. Same thing couple of days later, a guy live streams himself on Facebook driving around in Memphis shooting innocent people. This feels, as you mentioned, it’s not just… You mentioned Greenwich where you had the issue. It’s not just big cities now. Is crime, in your mind, the number one issue that Republicans should be focused on nationwide, the clarifying sort of clarion call?
MARCUS: Along with inflation, I think so. And there’s a reason, right? Crime and inflation are political issues that voters feel, right? Immigration, foreign policy, these are issues that people think about. When you’re standing in line at the grocery store and that big number shows up and you’re thinking, “How am I gonna get that Xbox for my kid’s birthday?” you feel that in your gut, right?
CLAY: Yeah.
MARCUS: That’s real. And if you send your kid off to school or your spouse goes off to work and you’re worried about them, you know, being a victim of crime, that’s that same kind of in-your-gut feeling that gets people out to the ballot box and gets them pulling levers to try to fix it. So, yeah, I think, inflation and crime right now are the two things that are most important to Americans and really what Americans need to hammer on.
BUCK: My friend and columnist David Marcus. Dave, I always appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much.
MARCUS: Thanks for having me, guys.
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