According to the FBI, the violent crime rate has fallen 51% between 1993 and 2018, and according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics it fell 71% during the same span. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/17/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/ Property crime has also fallen significantly. But people want to believe that things are in fact worse than in the past because that’s what they do.

Rioting is not revolutionary violence, which is organized. The people throwing bricks and breaking into stores are not part of any organization trying to sieze power. The 20 year old white kid that started the violence in downtown Pittsburgh a week ago last Saturday by jumping on a police car lived with his parents in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs. The police found his riot outfit washed and neatly folded by his mom on the dryer. The dude is not exactly Ho Chi Mihn.

The rioting surrounding the Freddy Gray death in Baltimore was organized, but it’s purpose wasn’t revolution but for gangsters to knock over 27 drug stores and steal the half a million or so doses of heavy drugs in them. Once the riot starts, people with ulterior motives are going to come out and take adavantage of it, because why not?