DeSantis vs. Newsom on violent crime

The governor of California. Gavin Newsom isn’t running for president in 2024, at least not yet, but he has agreed to a televised debate on Fox News next month with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. An interesting topic will be their respective economic records, but they should also spend time on public safety.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released national statistics for 2022 this week, and the headline was that violent crime decreased by 1.7%, falling back to the same level as before the pandemic. But it’s a big country and these averages don’t tell the whole story. In California, violent crimes are still up 13% since 2019. In Florida, they are down 31.5%. The violent crime rate in Mr. Newsom’s state last year, 499.5 per 100,000 residents, was almost double that in Mr. DeSantis’s area, 258.9 per 100,000 residents.