Big Murder on Trump’s Watch

This happened on Trump’s watch. And he’s got to own it. The fourth year of his regime, 2020, was one of the most murderous in U. S. history. Largest one-year increase on record, a nearly 30% increase over the previous year with an additional 4,901 homicides in 2020 compared with the year before, the largest leap since national records started in 1960 for a total of 21,000+ murders. Lots of reasons: pandemic stress, civil unrest and proliferation of guns. But one other reason may eclipse all others: Trump himself. Or the Trumpification of America. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Trump told supporters in 2016. Trump set the standard for lawlessness, criminality and mendacity as America’s law-breaker-in-Chief. Is it any wonder that low-life criminals, the mentally ill, the despairing, looked to Trump and said WTF, this guy’s the President and look what he gets away with. And he wants us all to own as many guns and mass-murder AR-15s as possible. Murder and mayhem. Thanks Trump. You own this.