There was a golden age of low crime after World War II and before the “Age of Aquarius.”

Lulled into optimism by the 1950s—during which critics belabored the oppressions of “conformity”—a more nuanced view of criminal responsibility, a turn towards the promise of rehabilitation, and a general skepticism of punishment took place. “Radical chic” became popular. The death penalty went away, and the prison population plummeted, along with that of the psychiatric wards.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The Post-1960s Crime Wave

Violent crime of all kinds underwent a sustained rise after the tumultuous atmosphere of the 1960s and the associated weakening of the criminal justice system. The cause and effect were obvious, but there was a lot of head-scratching about what to do.

Confined by the straightjacket of liberal morality, cities and their leaders were powerless to respond, ensnared by their anxieties about being associated with the very oppression from which they thought they were liberating us.
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We have seen both sides of this ledger, the hollowed out cities of Baltimore and Detroit, and the return of life to our big cities like New York and Washington, D.C. after their massive drop in crime. For the latter, “Arts . . . Letters . . . and Society” all flourished.
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The BLM Crime Wave

Beginning in the second part of the Obama Administration, this all started to change. The idea of the noble, oppressed criminal as a warrior for racial justice gained currency. Rather than supporting law enforcement and condemning criminal violence, President Obama and the mainstream media spread lies about “gentle giant” Michael Brown and St. Trayvon Martin.
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Rather than groveling for approval or attempting to navigate the maze of their alternative morality, soft-headed leftism should be rejected out of hand. The Left’s indifference to consequences and manifest record of failure renders them moral imbeciles, and the blood of innocents is on their hands.