Pandemic Created Crime Wave Worsens w/ Inflation

One of the subjects (among many) that Robin and I argued about during the Trump-led first year of the pandemic was about how bad crime was getting in 2020.

I had heard that as white collar workers stopped coming into the offices en masse to work from home, the caliber of people left in the downtown areas had… fallen. In addition, police in liberal urban areas with BLM protests were either rightfully hesitating to interfere in some situations OR, more ominously, passive-aggressively avoiding policing in retaliation for the protests against police brutality. I understood the basics of these circumstances, but not how truly awful this issue had become. Robin was trying to tell me downtown Portland was like a war zone, and I countered that perhaps most of the boarded up windows were due to the pandemic closing so many businesses at the same time as the protests were raging, not so much from a crime wave. She argued “those liberals” had “ruined” the city.

Well– she was right that it was much worse than I had wanted to believe originally. I have friends (mostly gay men) who live in downtown Seattle, Portland, and a couple of other West Coast cities who have kept me informed as the neighborhoods they work and live in deteriorate.

The hope, of course, was that when the pandemic was less of an issue business patronage would return and restore some of the normalcy, including lower crime rates, to downtown areas. Indeed, President Biden mentioned in his State of the Union speech sending white collar workers “back to their offices” as a major policy going forward. Commercial office real estate has taken a massive hit over the last 2 years, and lobbyists for that industry have pushed hard to get people working from home back into the offices where they spend more money on transportation, food, and other business that supports office workers.

However, many businesses have found that dumping the overhead costs of keeping an office is a more prudent use of money and are opting to keep their workers at home rather than commuting. In addition, most white collar workers now know that working from home is a viable option and are asking to continue doing so either all or at least part of the time. A permanent shift out of downtown offices has occurred, allowing many in traditional urban areas to move out to less costly rural housing areas, famously in favor of places like Idaho or Texas. (Or, like Cat did moving out to the Kitsap Peninsula!)

Meanwhile, supply shortages from the pandemic and now the war with Russia have created higher costs for many items, and worker shortages have increased wages for many previously underpaid positions, also increasing costs for goods and services. (We’re back to 4 full cargo/container ships in the Puget sound waiting to be off-loaded currently.) Gas prices, in particular, have doubled in just a few months’ time, and food costs have risen up to 50%!

As people are priced out of food and fuel, two of the most needed resources besides shelter, crime is going up as it often does when inflation hits suddenly and harshly. We were already having issues between the urban diasporas and the police retaliation, but super-inflation on top of that–?

For more information on what I’m discussing:
8 Cities That Help Explain National Crime Wave: from the Right Wing point of view,
(which, to be fair, has some points worth considering– like social workers can’t replace police
except in limited mental health situations, as we’ve seen demonstrated in many BLM protest areas)
www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/8-cities-help-explain-national-crime-wave

America Is Having A Violence Wave, Not A Crime Wave: from the Left Wing point of view
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/america-having-violence-wave-not-crime-wave/620234/

To me, it’s clear that many things converged in 2020 to begin the urban crime wave. However, even as the issues from the pandemic continue to recede over time, other factors decreasing security, including economic hardship from record inflation, will only exacerbate crime.

It’s a fun time to be alive, huh!?