Donald Trump advised Home Republicans Thursday that Milwaukee, the location of the Republican National Convention, is a “horrible city.”
Whereas Republican leaders had various accounts of what his remark meant, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung mentioned Trump was speaking about crime and election points.
Trump has touted false claims of election fraud inside Milwaukee after shedding Wisconsin in the 2020 election. He has additionally criticized Chicago, San Francisco and New York City for prime crime charges. These jabs are half of a bigger conservative narrative that the nation is devolving into crime, though FBI statistics point out a decline in killings.
Is Milwaukee actually a dangerous city? This is what to find out about crime charges within the Midwestern metropolis:
Extra:FBI data shows America is seeing a ‘considerable’ drop in crime. Trump says the opposite.
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What latest Milwaukee crime information exhibits
Milwaukee is a metropolis of greater than 570,000 individuals and the largest in Wisconsin.
Statewide crime information from 2022 compiled by the FBI exhibits Wisconsin falls under the nationwide common charges, with 297 violent offenses per 100,000 in comparison with 380.7 within the U.S. at massive.
The info consists of stories voluntarily handed over by varied regulation enforcement businesses.
The Milwaukee Police Department reported 8,474 violent crimes in 2022. The South Milwaukee Police Division, the West Milwaukee Police Division and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Workplace additionally reported to the FBI with fewer than 100 offenses every.
Consultants advised Wisconsin Watch it’s tough to check between cities and the nationwide common, which incorporates suburbs and rural areas. The FBI dashboard solely consists of charges for the state and nationwide ranges.
The FBI discourages rating or comparing cities by crime rates on account of varied sociological variations, however evaluating a metropolis’s crime charges to itself may give clues on whether or not crime charges have been shifting up or down.
A glance again at violent crimes reported by MPD from 2012 till 2022 exhibits the variety of complete offenses fell in 2022, nearer to 2019 and 2012-2014 ranges, recognized by criminology specialists as national low benchmarks for crime.
Nonetheless, accuracy of crime information can be depending on reporting to police, and not all crimes are notified to police at the same rates.
Specializing in murder information submitted to the FBI between 2012 and 2022, homicides reported by the MPD had been up from 93 in 2012 to 214 in 2022.
In 2024, that charge may very well be waning. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported in April that the Milwaukee police noticed homicides down 54% within the first quarter of 2024 in comparison with the primary quarter of 2022.
Contributing: Zac Anderson, Ben Adler, USA TODAY; Molly Beck, Lawrence Andrea, David Clarey, Elliot Hughes; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel