advertisement

SSN on Facebook SSN on Twitter SSN on YouTube RSS Feed

13 Comments
Nancy Smith

West Palm Crime Story: Media Really Must Stop Giving Trump an Excuse to Hammer Them

February 20, 2017 - 6:00am

Donald Trump likes to niggle Chicago as the poster child for violent crime, but over the weekend NBC had some fun with federal crime statistics, pointing out that West Palm Beach's crime was equal to the Windy City's in 2015.

It was a dog of a story, frankly. Correct in 2015, an outlier year. Totally false in 2016 and every other year that I can find.

West Palm, a city of 104,919 residents just across the Intracoastal Waterway from the president's Mar-a-Lago, did record 23 homicides in 2015. The rate of violent crime, which also includes rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, was 9 for every 1,000 residents -- exactly the same as far larger Chicago. 

See the federal crime stats in all Florida cities and counties in the attachment below. 

Mar-a-Lago, just across the Intracoastal
Mar-a-Lago, just across the Intracoastal

NBC -- which the president labeled one of the purveyors of "fake news" even before this story was aired -- wrote this: "While Trump regularly rails about crime in the city that is the hometown of his predecessor Barack Obama and birthplace of Hillary Clinton, he's not said a peep about the past troubles in the city he drives through every time he comes to Florida."

Past troubles is right.

And while we're at it, Palm Beach is hardly Trump's hometown. Blaming Trump for ignoring West Palm's crime -- which is the sly implication -- is like blaming George H.W. Bush for the poverty around Kennebunkport, Maine.

The network quoted Ricky Aiken, a community activist (and no fan of the president) in the hardest hit crime zones of West Palm. "If he is serious about making changes in the inner cities, he would be welcome. But people like him tend to avoid communities like mine," Aiken said of Trump.

Trump's footprint in the actual city of West Palm Beach isn't as large as many think, that's true. Though the 33-story Trump Plaza is the tallest building in town, Trump recently sold it. He does still own the 27-hole Trump International Golf Club. And the Sun-Sentinel tells us the Trump Foundation has donated $25,000 for the Palm Beach Zoo, $5,000 to the Palm Beach Opera, and $1,000 to the Pediatric Oncology Support Team Inc. That's it.

The story is an intentional hit job. 

It chides Trump for a comment he made during one of his debates with Hillary Clinton: "Trump complained that he never gets credit for opening a golf course where there is 'no discrimination against African-Americans, against Muslims, against nobody.'

"... The only gangs on the island are the legions of designer-clad matrons thronging Worth Avenue during the season ... Nor is anyone likely to riot over injustice, unless the B&T (Bath & Tennis Club) runs out of gin for G&Ts (gin and tonics)."

All Trump did is misspeak on the town/city. He said "Palm Beach" when he should have said "West Palm Beach." Big deal. The fact remains, Donald J. Trump did open a golf course where there is no discrimination, etc.-- and it was in West Palm Beach.

Now, I've got my issues with our president, God knows, but he has a point when he complains about the mainstream media. The whole story was a cheap shot. Reaching back two years to compare crime figures? Seriously?

During the first six months of 2016, the most recent crime records available (these from the state, not the feds), the town of Palm Beach recorded no homicides, no rapes, no robberies and just one aggravated assault. That's pretty near perfect. And even NBC admitted that.

And West Palm Beach saw a sharp decline in homicides in 2016 "after experiencing one of its deadliest years in 2015. ... 10 homicides in 2016, compared with 23 in 2015," said the Palm Beach Post.

Chicago, meanwhile -- after the first THREE months of 2016 -- registered 135 homicides, a 71 percent jump over the 79 killings in the same year-earlier period, official Police Department statistics show. It represented the worst first quarter of a year since 136 homicides in 1999, according to the data.

West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, originally a New Yorker, resents any crime comparison to Chicago.

"We're a very different place from Chicago," she told NBC News. "We did have a spike in 2015 ... it was very upsetting to us all. Young black men shooting young black men."

Unlike Chicago, where most of the violence is gang-related, what happened in West Palm Beach was fueled by "historic personal beefs," she said. And like the rest of the country, West Palm has been dealing with a heroin epidemic.

It wasn't until the end of a long story that NBC said, "Also, unlike Chicago, the homicide wave that washed over West Palm Beach didn't last."

"Since 2007 our crime rate has steadily gone down," Mayor Muoio said. "There will always be peaks, spikes that happen. Overall, there is a significant downward trend."

Members of the media turn indignant when our thin-skinned president demonizes them. But look at this story. Does it really have a reason for being? What about it is fair?

However many of the 46 percent of voters who cast their ballots for Trump and saw this story get what he's talking about when he uses words like "fake news." This story really was fake news.

It seems to me there are enough real issues about Trump's presidency we can and should write about. We in the media, particularly the mainstream media, don't have to keep driving nails into our own coffin.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith

Comments

Trump is "head & shoulders" above the niggler who preceded him ! I would be careful "SSN", to prevent "falling into the trap" of trying to ameliorate (or adjust) 'facts' in order to justify media "talking point agendas" on behalf of the "Liberal Left's Fall From Grace"... TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE ! ! !

Yes, yes, no demonizing white supremacy racism here by C Breeze, once again, now is there . . . . . . what a despicable human being from Santa Rosa County . . . . . . . and "truth", you must mean like that terrorist attack in Sweden that Trump so boldly proclaims happened the other night . . . . . only problem, he's his own Fake News machine, making up news and facts that don't exist . . . . . what a bullying role model . . . . I'm glad you're so proud of a daily proven, pathological liar . . . . . . . your perfect role model . . . . . . . PATHETIC . . . .

Check out "Stockholm Syndrome" on UTUBE for the 'straight scoop' on Sweden.

Got a dictionary "Frank",.. then go borrow one.. and lookup "niggler"... You might learn something (not to mention, the word applies to you too)... [and "jerry" as well..]

Oh I know what the word means . . . . . but not in your used context . . . . there, it's simply a convenient demonizing code word used by far right racists, like you . . . . or have you so soon forgotten all those other African-American demonizing words you've used on this site . . . . glad I can get under your skin . . . . . . . . . . . PATHETIC . . .

You do it to your damn selves Nancy just like this fake article......... That Chicago. Twisting Palm Beach to have as many murders as Chicago........ what about those wounded in Chicago while you're at it, those people count too and one more thing, respect our President, it's President Trump and yes, like him or not it's the press that needs to respect the position.

West Palm Beach and its immediately adjacent suburbs have deteriorated in recent years due to liberal Lois Frankel's being soft on crime as well as current Mayor and 'hand-picked' successor' have been totally reactive and not proactive to curtailing the upward spiral in crime. That's a sad commentary for the residents suffering through this spike in crime, but they voted ineffectual leadership into office. But it's easy to understand this line of thinking when you march in lockstep with the Democratic party philosophy and have done so for many years.

The media brought the ill will of Trump and a marjority portion of America on itself by being liberal, turning a blind eye on any wrong doings by ANY democrat and in general not doing the job they should. The role of media is important and should be done - however, the role of media is to tell the truth, tell the facts and leave your personal beliefs at the door. You haven't done that for many, many years. In short - you made your own bed. The American public views you along side used car salesmen and members of Congress - and that's as low as it gets.

Nancy - Trump is one national coffin that won't go away by letting Trump/Bannon determine on any given day just what "truth" is. Our media today must speak truth to Trump/Bannon's propaganda power. Sorry if the reality makes folks uncomfortable.

Like former President Obama did......... Lie to the American Citizens and allow Hundreds of Thousands of Illegals across the southern border, Refugees and Muslin's unvetted and they are here in America on welfare. You lefties drank the Koolaid and just can't get over the fact that we have a new President.

I am a registered GOP voter, who knows how and what to think - and why I think it. And I have a human name, "Anonymous".

Natalie Wood was a human name too, didn't she fall off your boat and was never seen again.

All your commits show how much you're a GOP voter........ Like a back stabbing SOB! Show us where it's required to show a human LOL name.

Comments are now closed.

nancy smith
advertisement
advertisement
Live streaming of WBOB Talk Radio, a Sunshine State News Radio Partner.

advertisement