"The Wall Street Journal opinion writer and crime analyst Heather Mac Donald reports that, according to early numbers, it appears that the United States “saw the largest percentage increase in homicides” in its history, with murder rates rising an average of nearly 40% in 57 of the country’s largest cities.
“The local murder increases in 2020 were startling: 95% in Milwaukee, 78% in Louisville, Ky., 74% in Seattle, 72% in Minneapolis, 62% in New Orleans, and 58% in Atlanta, according to data compiled by crime analyst Jeff Asher. Dozens of children, overwhelmingly black, were killed in drive-by shootings,” Mac Donald writes on Tuesday. “They were slain in their beds, living rooms, and strollers. They were struck down at barbecues, in their yards, in malls, in their parents’ cars, and at birthday parties. Fifty-five children were killed in Chicago in 2020, 17 in St. Louis, and 11 in Philadelphia. In South Los Angeles alone, 40 children were shot, some non-lethally, through September.”
