Murder rates in the United States during 2021 soared to the highest level in 25 years, according to a recent report.
The 2021 murder rate is estimated to be as high as it was in the mid-1990s, when close to 20,000 people were killed annually across the country, Just the News reports.
In 2021, the FBI estimates that the murder rate was 6.9 murders per 100,000 people, just a bit lower than the 1996 rate of 7.4 murders per 100,000 people.
Former NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir - who served during the 1990s crime spike - told Fox News that last year’s spike is partially due to the “woke mentality that assumes that police are racist and brutal.”
“If crimes continue to be committed in large numbers, and police continue not to have the backing of politicians and the public, then they’re not going to do their job the way they did when I was commissioner,” he said.
