@jolyonThe crime drop is real, and Bill Maher is willing to hand Trump's tough-guy image part of the credit for it. His argument to the audience: you don't elect a FAFO president and then pretend the streets did not notice. What he won't do is call the image the whole story. Surveillance expanding onto every block and a wider safety net get counted among the causes too, and he remains unhappy with how certain deportations are carried out. So the persona mattered, in his telling, without being the only reason violence fell. The figures he's standing on aren't comedy material: a historic decline, with murder returning to levels not seen since the 1950s. Source: NYP / Writer: Lucas

@jolyonThe crime drop is real, and Bill Maher is willing to hand Trump's tough-guy image part of the credit for it. His argument to the audience: you don't elect a FAFO president and then pretend the streets did not notice. What he won't do is call the image the whole story. Surveillance expanding onto every block and a wider safety net get counted among the causes too, and he remains unhappy with how certain deportations are carried out. So the persona mattered, in his telling, without being the only reason violence fell. The figures he's standing on aren't comedy material: a historic decline, with murder returning to levels not seen since the 1950s. Source: NYP / Writer: Lucas