Baltimore is seeing the greatest decline in violent crime and homicides it has witnessed in well over 50 years.

The very people these leaders claim to champion — the poor, the working class, the vulnerable — are the ones most harmed by policies that leave them defenseless.

This is not just a policing issue — it’s a governance issue. A political class eager to tout success selectively leans on crime statistics that do not represent reality. Meanwhile, communities drowning in fear feel gaslit. That disconnect breeds cynicism, disengagement and eventually rage. It is one reason why “law and order” rhetoric resonates so powerfully in American politics. People know something is wrong, even if official numbers deny it.