New York was reeling from the a series of horrendous crimes, including Charles Gallagher's murder, a Columbia University physics professor who was shot in Central Park. Time Magazine noted that Gallaghers' murder was a reminder of the park as a sanctuary for birds and bird watchers such as Charles Gallagher, but that it has long been a hideout for perverts and holdup men. Bertha Haas was strangled and raped in her apartment.These tragedies had a cumulative impact. In 1966, almost half of white Brooklynites felt unsafe walking outside after dark. Forty percent said they sometimes stayed home or forgo social engagements due to the danger. 74 percent expressed concern or extreme concern about their homes being burglarized.Public perception had a clear racial undertone. Nearly five out of five New Yorkers were white and said they would be concerned if a Black person entered the street and started walking towards them.The story was repeated across the country. Alabama Governor. George Wallace, a self-described segregationist and white supremacist, launched a bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee. His impressive performance in the Wisconsin primary stunned political observers. Although incumbent President Lyndon Johnson won the state easily, Wallace's appeal in suburban and white urban neighborhoods was evident. Wallace warned that if you are struck in the head in a city street today, the man responsible will be taken to jail before you can get to the hospital. Because of the tension between the races, night football games are no longer possible. That is the city of brotherly loves!Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace speaks before a Confederate flag in 1964. AP PhotoA rally was held in Milwaukee before 700 working-class voters, most of whom were of Serbian and Polish, Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Czechoslovakian descent. Brono Gruber, a veteran military officer and local bar owner, was the master of ceremonies. He said that three weeks ago, a friend of his was attacked by three of his countrymen or whatever they want to call them. They beat up 83-year-old women and rape our womenfolk. They mug people. They don't work. They provide temporary relief. This is unacceptable. Was it my intention to go to Guadalcanal in order to see something similar? "Wallace was able combine concerns about neighborhood integration and crime, as many white voters believed they were one and same. Governor LBJ's proxy on Wisconsin's ballot. John Reynolds was ridiculed in blue-collar communities for his advocacy of a state law on open housing that would have crackeddown on restrictive home sales and segregated rentals.White racism over race and crime was not unaffected by reality. Federal mortgage agencies imposed racial restrictive housing laws that left Black Americans with the most cramped and expensive housing stock. Residents were treated as second-class citizens because they did not have access to basic services such as reliable garbage removal, building inspection, and quality schools.Discrimination led to a vicious circle. Black residents were severely limited in their housing options by discriminatory mortgage and rental practices. This meant that they had little recourse when their landlords subdivided or consolidated their properties, resulting in more cramped and rundown housing stock. As landlords found it easier to house more tenants in one home than to maintain and pay property taxes on two, boarded up, abandoned buildings were commonplace. In fact, such decay was a magnet for a large number of drug dealers and vagrants as well as prostitutes and vandals. If residents of white ethnic enclaves were to fear surrounding Black neighborhoods in Gary, Indiana, or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was because they had real experience.Residents of Canarsie, Brooklyn's working-class neighborhood, were captivated by the violence and crime that was destroying nearby neighborhoods. One man said to a socioologist that the Blacks destroyed the entire neighborhood. We had more crime as buildings started to burn down.Many working-class white voters couldn't distinguish crime from race. Neighborhood integration and the political battles over school busing fueled white backlash. Crime became a convenient way for Republican politicians to use racialized anxiety to divide and conquer their electorate.You will see a completely different landscape if you look at the 2020s. While race is still a major part of politics, it's a very different landscape in a country that is significantly more diverse than 50 years ago. In which we are reexamining every aspect of our national history, civic framework and citizenship, culture wars over critical racism theory might be more relevant than criminal offenses.The fact that the American population has been resorted in recent years is more important than ever. These swing voters today are not working-class residents living in transitional urban areas but suburbanites. Cities are the most dangerous places for violent crime, and they will not change. Suburbs are the new political battlefield, whereas violent crime isn't on the rise.According to polling, while the majority of Americans believe that crime is a serious problem facing the country (59 per cent in a Washington Post/ABC poll), only 17 percent believe it is a problem where they live. It is easy to see why Fox News' conservative viewers might believe that Joe Biden's administration has caused American carnage in a media environment with a high degree of siloedness.New York City subway station patrolled by police officers in May 2020 | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty ImagesHowever, voters are not distributed in the same way as they were in 1970. The educated suburbs are now up for grabs. They simply don't face violent crime as often as the working-class Democrats in Brooklyn and Milwaukee did half a century ago. Will they be motivated to vote in November 2022 if they don't see crime as a threat? Historical records would suggest it won't.This is not to say that all urban voters who are affected by the rise in crime may be out of reach. Studies have shown that low-income, non-white families are more vulnerable to violent crime and are more likely to see it as a threat. Republicans have been making inroads with Latino voters. In recent months, it became clear that the racial justice awakening of last year has obscured a more complex reality about Black voters. They are diverse, not a monolith, but generally concerned about crime, and would welcome a larger police presence on the streets, if that is necessary to protect their safety.Theoretically, then, working-class Black Americans and Latino Americans could be today's crime-backlash voters, especially if they are more conservative-leaning. The GOP is not equipped to take advantage of this opportunity. Open embrace of white nationalism by the party will likely put a limit on its support. Its association with the January 6, insurgent makes it a weak, or at most compromised messenger. Democrats could easily portray Republicans as the true perpetrators of violence within American society.Polling has shown that voters are evenly split on which party is best equipped to tackle crime. This is not the same advantage Republicans had 50 years ago. While it was intuitive and easy to blame Democratic mayors, governors, and Lyndon Johnson in the 1970s for the nation's collapse, it is not clear that voters today will punish Democrats for an increase in violent crime. Some people may decide that the rise in crime is an unfortunate result of the pandemic. This is especially true if it slows down over the next months.It is still far off the horizon, but things can change very quickly in politics. However, the GOP may not be able to deliver the winning message based on history and polling. Yesterday's swing voters may not be today's swing voters. In 2021, law & order wont mean the exact same thing as it did in 1971.
