(Daily Signal)—Last week, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, questioned former Baltimore law enforcement veteran Maj. Neill Franklin about the safety of Baltimore City. This was part of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into sanctuary jurisdictions. In his line of questioning, the freshman representative asked Franklin outright if Baltimore was a “safe city.”
Any person with common sense would have replied to that question with a resounding “No,” but not Franklin—he said, “Yes.” The Texas Republican then laid out the crime statistics of Baltimore to Franklin.
The homicide rate in Baltimore is about five times the national average. The robbery rate is 8.4 times the national average. The assault rate is 3.4 times the national average.
Gill then asked again and again if Baltimore was a safe city. Eventually, the witness added that safety is “perception” of whether or not you feel safe—implying that even if you aren’t safe, you are if you simply believe it.
Unfortunately for people who live in Baltimore, feeling safe isn’t enough. Crime doesn’t magically go away because you feel it isn’t there.
When wild prey like deer or rabbits are grazing in an open field, surely, they feel safe enough to do so—but as they are silently stalked by natural predators like lions, hawks, or snakes, they really aren’t.
As someone who grew up in and around Baltimore, I rarely felt safe—nor did my parents. They knew the “bad parts” of town, and even then, I was taught to keep my head on a swivel when I went out downtown, regardless the time of day or the area I was in.
My family’s experience isn’t unique, it is the everyday reality of citizens in each of the cities that rank in the top 25 for violent crime. All of those cities coincidentally happen to be run by Democrats (even though the mayor of Las Vegas (at No. 23) is a “nonpartisan role”).
Americans know this—as I’d wager that most can name 10 or more of our nation’s top crime-ridden cities off the top of their heads. This leads me to then ask, what was the congressional witness trying to pull?
This is an age-old trick of politicians, snake oil salesmen, and common scammers—convincing people that if they personally feel better, everything must be working. People not believing these lies is one of the major reasons Donald Trump won in 2024.
While Democrat politicians and their surrogates tried to tell Americans—particularly minorities—that if they felt safe, they must be safe, real-world experiences immediately disproved their claims.
When you live in a major city in America, you don’t feel safe. I knew this growing up: On three separate occasions, criminals tried to break into our home. And I knew this before and after I was robbed at gunpoint in Washington, D.C., just a few short years ago.
When there are quiet nights, the quiet around your house is interrupted by police sirens ringing through the air—a constant reminder that even if you aren’t personally affected, something bad has happened to someone in your neighborhood.
It should be insulting to everyone’s intelligence that a law enforcement veteran from Baltimore would claim that safety is all in one’s perception. Gill’s tone and facial expression reflected this as he replied, “If you’re murdered, I don’t think it matters what you feel.”
The time for the gaslighting of crime statistics is over. Facts will always supersede feelings here. Americans know which cities are riddled with crime, and Americans who live in those cities either have been personally affected by crime or know someone who has.
