While Donald Trump claimed the Washington, D.C., crime rate is comparable to tumultuous foreign cities like Baghdad and Panama City, MSNBC put a graphic onscreen showing that the city has actually been experiencing brighter days.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people,” Trump said during a press conference on Monday, during which he announced that he’d be deploying the National Guard around town.
That’s when MSNBC smoothly slotted in a graphic titled “Decreases in Violence Crime Rates,” which showed that overall violent crime in D.C. has dropped by 26%, homicides have declined by 12% and robberies decreased by 28%. All the data on the graphic was sourced from the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C.
He went on to read data from documents he brought to the podium as he likened D.C. to cities overseas.
“These are different cities throughout the world. The red is a place called Washington, D.C. Look at these.” Trump said. “Baghdad is — we doubled up on Baghdad. Panama City; Brasilia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Bogota, Colombia — heavy drugs — Mexico City. I mentioned Lima, Peru — all double and triple what they are. So do you want to live in places like that? I don’t think so. I don’t think so; and I think the people in this room, if you wrote correctly, you’d see.”
As he continued, the graphic remained on the screen.
“Look at the kind of numbers we have. D.C., 41 per 100,000 — number one that we can find anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Other cities are pretty bad, but they’re not as bad as that. That where you want to live, the reporters of the world? Juvenile offenders and crimes against persons, as they say. It’s getting worse. Not getting better, it’s getting worse.”
On Monday, Trump took to social media to share that the country’s capital will be “liberated” from “crime,” “savagery,” “filth,” and added that the “days of ruthlessly killing or hurting innocent people are over.” As part of his supposed promise and a new executive order, he subsequently deployed the National Guard to Washington in an effort to curb its rate of crime and homelessness, as he said it’s been overrun by “gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”
On Monday, Trump took to social media to share that the country’s capital will be “liberated” from “crime,” “savagery,” “filth,” and added that the “days of ruthlessly killing or hurting innocent people are over.” As part of his supposed promise and a new executive order, he subsequently deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. in an effort to curve its rate of crime and homelessness, as he said it’s been overrun by “gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”