Yes, it does. But it is possible to compare two similar locales and determine if local policy has an impact on it. Pick large cities in Japan (where people also live) and compare them to your average US city.
What do you expect leader to do in JAX...its not about more police..police respond to crime they dont necessarily prevent it normally. The solution is fixing the economy of the city and addressing the poor schools and resources in the poor areas and revitalization to an extent to lift up areas. It takes money and mayors never.address these issues..they simply blame each other and focus on the crime alone.
You're answering your own question. I know the lot of you hate Rudy Giuliani, but the man sure did a great job transforming NYC after Dinkens and Koch. The man brought Disney to 42nd street, where we used to skip school to look at the druggies and peep show pervs and laugh. Mayors have a huge impact potential if they want to. You say its not about more police, I disagree. Times Square police used to be on every street corner. Massive visible presence stops crimes. Its just that simple. If you went to jail under Giuliani for some crime, you weren't on the street 2 hours later. It had consequences.
Rudy is batshit crazy..he has not been the man he was for.many years now. Police presence only.moves crime away from a specific area. Cops in times square is great but again still does not.address crime. So just more police.isnot the answer unless you put cops.everwhere in the Bronx and Brooklyn and Queens.as well. Be it.Jax or NYC it is just not feasible to only add.cops yet leave the squalor all cities suffer from. But it takes $$$$...which cities never have.
You’re ignoring the macros. We know gun laws impact gun violence rates. Cities don’t have control over those laws. We also know that poverty and crime are connected as well. But I’m not going to go down this road though. I’m happy to live in a low crime/low gun violence state.
California held a lot of promise and did have a golden age but it is now filled with decay, crime and abject homelessness. Its definitely third world in the two largest cities. Many have fled to the outlying areas and those are still marginally livable. I lived uptown in LA (1st and Hope St.) for years and its pretty dangerous to go outside at night. That is new. I used to walk my dog at night around the music center with no problems. Its on Bunker Hill and the hill itself used to be sort of a deterrent to bad guys. Not any more.
I grew up in Brooklyn NY in the 1980s. A mobster was shot in a restaurant on the block I lived on. There was drugs and homelessness everywhere. The subway was disgusting and full of hustlers and crime. Graffiti was all over the place. Now it’s a million dollar neighborhood. Cities go through cycles of investment and decay then investment. Cities are also the economic engine of America. No cities, no pretty little suburbs. Try to keep things in perspective, chicken little.