Murders up in Most Cities in 2020

Data aggregated by Jeff Asher of AH Datalytics, LLC indicates that in American cities, there were considerably more murders in 2020 than in 2019. Asher's data also show that Republican-administered cities performed marginally better than Democratic ones.

Regarding the statistics, the Dispatch reports, "Most cities' data are up to date as of December or November, but a few were last updated at the end of September."

Image: Orange County Register

Asher considered 57 cities, including major metropolises like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Of these 57, murders were up in 51, down in four, and constant in two.

Cities administered by Democrats performed worse than those with Republican mayors. In the 42 cities with a Democratic mayor, 38 (90.5%) had more murders in 2020 than in 2019. Overall, murders in Democratic cities were up 38% relative to 2019.

For example, Atlanta had 150 murders in 2020, compared to 95 at the same point in 2019. Their percent increase is therefore a chilling 57.9%.

In the 14 cities administered by Republicans, murders were up in 12 (85.7%), and the number of murders in Republican cities increased by 29.9% between 2019 and 2020. Republican Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Virginia Beach, Virginia had substantial declines in the number of murders: 20.7% and 40%, respectively.

In the one city administered by an independent—Las Vegas, Nevada—murders were up by 14.3% relative to 2019.

In all 57 cities assessed by Asher, there were at least 7,101 murders in 2020, compared to 5,194 murders at the same point in 2019—an increase of 36.7%. The Washington Post reports that anti-police sentiment could be to blame:

Richard B. Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, said the data shows the first half of 2020 was more or less in line with past years, but there was a major change around the middle of the year.

"The increase tends to occur in nearly every city at the very end of May and the first days of June," Rosenfeld said. "The size and abruptness of the increase are unprecedented."

That was the time frame in which the country was convulsed by protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Rosenfeld and other experts said that the apparent collapse of public confidence in police departments appears to have led to more violent crime, similar to what happened in 2015 after protests over police killings in Ferguson, Mo., Chicago and New York, but more sudden, and more severe.

The Post adds, "In some communities, residents have also questioned whether police officers are responding to criticism by pulling back."