In absolute numbers, blacks commit most of the crime in the United States. Blacks account for half of all the arrests for assault and rape, and two-thirds of arrests for robbery. Blacks are disproportionately more represented in all categories of felonies, except those requiring access to large sums of money such as embezzlement and stock fraud. Close to 90 percent of the victims of black criminals are black. If they manage to buy a home, that home is worth less because of crime and wanton property destruction.
Poor people are most dependent on law and order for safety and welfare.
Wealthier people have the financial resources to protect themselves, by taking such steps as purchasing alarms or hiring private guards. An often-overlooked crime cost is that people who are the most upwardly mobile people are the first to leave. Their replacements are not as mobile or they care less about neighborhood amenities. The people who leave take with them the social leavening that contributes to vital and stable communities. During my youth in the 1930s and 1940s, black neighborhoods were far safer than today.