Rep. Nancy Mace incorrectly claimed that crime is “skyrocketing” across the United States under President Joe Biden, prompting X (formerly Twitter) to issue a community note correcting her. That note was later removed by the platform.
“You’re seeing, since Joe Biden took office, crime skyrocketing all across the country, and especially in big cities,” Mace said in a campaign video posted to X on Saturday. “You see illegal immigrants coming in, beating up cops… You’re seeing crime skyrocket.”
But data from the FBI shows that crime decreased significantly in 2023, including a 13 percent decline in murder, a 6 percent decline in reported violent crime and a 4 percent decrease in reported property crime. “At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall,” Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics, told NPR in February.
Users on X appended a Community Note to Mace’s post correcting her claim and citing the FBI statistics on Saturday, but by Sunday, the note had disappeared, journalist Aaron Rupar noted. X owner Elon Musk has previously said that he wants X to be the “most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation.”
Mace received a Community Note on X last week when she claimed she voted to appropriate more than $500 million in federal funding to her district. Users corrected her by pointing out that Mace “voted against the appropriations bill which authorized the funding she is seeking credit for.”
The congresswoman responded to the note, writing, “The @CommunityNotes – y’all are so dumb. Go look up the NDAA, WRDA and PACT Act, all of which I voted for.” But yet another Community Note pointed out that the “bills mentioned are authorization bills, not appropriations bills, and thus do not fund the activities authorized.”
By falsely claiming crime is increasing, Mace is likely trying to capitalize on Americans’ inaccurate perceptions. Despite recent declines in crime rates, a December Gallup poll found that 77 percent of Americans think that crime rates are going up.
Some forms of crime did actually increase during the pandemic — under President Donald Trump. Murders rose in 2020 by almost 30 percent. Violent crime overall grew by five percent and aggravated assault increased by nearly 12 percent that year, although other crimes like robbery and rape decreased by approximately ten percent.
