Today’s MAGA conservatives are a famously untruthful bunch, led by a guy who keeps getting sued for defamation. But there’s one lie that’s stranger than most: They’ve been painting New York City as a crime-ridden Boschian hellscape that’s slipped back to its gritty 1970s low point. Guess what? It’s not! It’s arguably the safest it’s ever been in its 400-year history. That doesn’t stop some in the GOP from claiming otherwise, even if crime is way, way, way worse in their own states. Enter noted dim bulb Tommy Tuberville.
Hope @JoeBiden enjoyed going out for ice cream in NYC while the rest of the city is afraid of crime and migrants.
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) February 27, 2024
The college football coach-somehow-turned-powerful Republican senator was among the rightwing voices thrown into a tizzy over Joe Biden eating ice cream Monday. His contribution to the furor was a little weaker than most, though: “Hope @JoeBiden enjoyed going out for ice cream in NYC while the rest of the city is afraid of crime and migrants.”
Tuberville could have asked any New Yorker if they think they’re living in the original Death Wish. They could have then laughed in his face. Crime has been tumbling for decades; it fell another 4.1% from 2022 to 2023. (That said, hate crime has been on the rise, some of it fueled by racist anti-Asian statements made by people like Donald Trump.) But Tuberville didn’t do that, and so he got rigorously owned on social media.
The most common attack on Tuberville wasn’t simply that he was wrong. It was that his own state of Alabama has a far higher crime rate. His tweet earned a brutal community note:
New York City’s homicide rate is 4.8 per 100,000. Alabama, the home state of Sen. Tuberville, has a homicide rate three times higher (15.9 per 100,000)
Others reminded him of his error.
Alabama’s murder rate is triple that of NY City. #TheMoreYouKnow
— Maestro (@Maestro4Maestro) February 27, 2024
You’re a fucking idiot. Your state’s homicide rate is 4x NYC’s. And you’d think it would be lower since I’m sure you can hear the police radio on those elephant ears of yours
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) February 27, 2024
Hellscape. pic.twitter.com/d1c62mjFCC
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 27, 2024
NYC’s homicide rate is 4.8 per 100k. Alabama’s homicide rate is 15.9 per 100k — more than three times that of NYC. https://t.co/iyqnMpwlcL
— Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) February 27, 2024
Annual murder rate per 100k residents:
* New York City: 4.5
* State of Alabama: 10.9 https://t.co/AuPgEn7tzl— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) February 27, 2024
In 2022, the murder rate in NYC was 5.2 per 100K residents.
In Alabama? 10.9 https://t.co/fg4XlspAj8
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) February 27, 2024
In 2022, the homicide rate in Alabama was a bit more than double the homicide rate in New York City.
(murder in NYC dropped further in 2023 but I haven’t been able to find statewide 2023 crime states for Alabama so I went with the 2022 comparison) https://t.co/RQdJqqLva5
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 27, 2024
New Yorker here. I enjoy going out for ice cream. Sometimes, I run into the migrants who live on my block when I do and we exchange pleasantries like normal people. Also, Alabama’s crime rate is higher than NYC’s. https://t.co/AAMUKaPqyu
— Julie Roginsky (@julieroginsky) February 27, 2024
The city’s mayor, who’s not exactly loved by his citizenry, even got in on the action, throwing in a reference to his recent dunderheaded comments about IVF that got him schooled last week.
Guess you haven’t visited New York City in a while.
Jobs are up, crime is down and we’re delivering for working people.
All that AND we support reproductive health — especially IVF. https://t.co/Ta4C1tqAPu
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) February 27, 2024
Speaking of, some New Yorkers are far more scared of a powerful senator who controls women’s reproductive rights than some fictitious crime wave.
Things I spend my days afraid of in New York: random right-wing football coaches from Alabama getting massive political power and using it to take reproductive freedoms away
Things I do not spend my days afraid of: crime and migrants https://t.co/upTB4HsJL6
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) February 27, 2024
Besides, the nation’s finest city is so tough on crime one of its most prominent criminals was even found guilty of fraud.
A major criminal, Trump, is about to go to jail and New Yorkers are excited!
— Art Candee (@ArtCandee) February 27, 2024
Tuberville also received some miscellaneous jokes.
This guy’s home state just ruled that rocky road is legally human https://t.co/udSZxZMp45
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 27, 2024
Pretty sure more New Yorkers are afraid of ghosts than migrants https://t.co/orIInI9O5h pic.twitter.com/Rr4mZ6UjCg
— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) February 27, 2024
Tuberville’s no stranger to being dunked on social media. Last fall, as he was holding up hundreds of military promotions as a stunt, people tried to make themselves feel better by sharing an old clip of him falling down some stairs like a clutz.
(Via Mediaite)