Rep. Jim Jordan (R-.Oh.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is going to Manhattan on Monday to lead a hearing that will focus on crime in New York City, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg has drawn the ire of Jordan for indicting Trump on felony charges. The hearing is intended to focus on “an increase in violent crime” in the city, the committee said, with the implication that Bragg, a Democrat, should do more to focus on problems that affect New Yorkers rather than waste money prosecuting a former president. A bodega clerk, the mother of a murder victim and an anti-crime activist running a “fire Alvin Bragg” campaign are scheduled to testify. Crime in New York has increased since 2020 — though it remains far below 1980s levels — and city statistics show that of the seven severe categories of crime, five are down relative to this point in 2022, reports the Washington Post Fact Checker. Manhattan alone has 1.6 million people and horrific crimes can happen there. A 21-year-old suspect, out on bail, was arrested Tuesday on charges of killing two people in Harlem within 30 hours.
The best way to assess the incidence of crime is to adjust the numbers to take into account the size of the population. Jordan represents a rural district in Ohio, and its biggest city is Mansfield, midway between Columbus and Cleveland. The population there is below 50,000. When crime numbers are adjusted for population, in many cases Mansfield does not fare well in comparison to Manhattan. That could be one reason Mansfield has the nickname “Danger City” in addition to its official nickname of “The Fun Center of Ohio.” The committee cited the website neighborhoodscout.com, which showed the violent crime rate for Manhattan was 5.21 per 1,000 residents, compared to 4.26 for Mansfield. These numbers for both cities are higher than the national median. And the website makes clear the committee is cherry-picking one data point. “With a crime rate of 37 per one thousand residents, Mansfield has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes — from the smallest towns to the very largest cities,” the website said. “One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 27. Within Ohio, more than 97% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Mansfield.” Manhattan fares better. The crime rate is higher than the average, but “at 25 crimes per one thousand residents, it is not among the communities with the very highest crime rate,” the website said.