Do I Feel Safe in a Large City Run By Democratic Politicians?

Yes.  

Safer than I would feel in a Republican controlled state if I were a teacher in a classroom, or if I attended a medium-sized conservative church on a Sunday morning, or went out to enjoy an evening dining experience on a crowded street with a lot of nighttime activity.  

Oh, by the way, I live in Chicago, Illinois.  

I feel safer here than I did when I lived in the suburbs of Houston, Texas for over 20 years.  While living there I came out of the local shopping mall in the predominantly white, predominantly Republican suburb where I lived to a shattered car window and items removed from the vehicle, not once, but twice.  The convenience market and gas station two blocks from my house, where I shopped regularly, was robbed multiple times during our time there.  And in this nice, peaceful suburban neighborhood of sprawling, ranch-style homes, about half the residents installed window bars and doors with metal bars on their houses.  

In my current neighborhood, in the city not the suburbs, there are fast food places on either side of the block where I live, a shopping center across the street with a bank in the parking lot, a convenience market and gas station directly across the street and an ethnic restaurant and bar in the same block.  In five years, there's been only one incident which warranted a police call, and that was a pedestrian getting hit by a car crossing the street in the middle of the block.  

I am aware of the crimes that are reported by the media, including the routine stuff, like carjackings, shootings, armed robbery, transit system issues and drug-related crime.  But it's no different here, in terms of the number of reports or the types of crime, than it is in any other big city.  The right wing media skews and exaggerates the statistics.  In most comparisons I see to other large cities, they use Cook County figures, not just city of Chicago, while using city figures of the other places in their comparison.  Cook County has almost 6 million people and more than two dozen other municipalities besides Chicago.  It's the second most populous county in the country.  But it is not even in the top 50 in crimes per population.  And here's the chart to prove it: United States Crime Rates by County

What you'll see in that data is that most of the counties with high crime rates are in red states and are under the jurisdiction of Republican politicians.  And looking at that data, I can say to someone like Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who posed this question, that I feel safer in Chicago than I would in any city or county in his district, several of which appear on the list with much higher crime rates than Cook County, Illinois.  So, Congressman Jordan, I've got a question for you.  If you are so concerned about crime, why haven't you done anything about it for the people in your district?  You're in Congress and you're griping about the Democrats record on crime.  But you have no record of having done anything about crime.  In fact, apparently you don't report crimes that you've witnessed. 

So, Congressman Jordan, my advice to you is to sit down.  And be quiet.  In other words, shut up. 

Florida and Texas are a Paradise for Mass Shooters

The church I attended for over a decade in Texas eventually got around to hiring a professional security service to place two full time, armed security guards in the parking area on Sunday and Wednesday during the busiest times of the week.  Having deacons volunteer to watch the parking lot didn't prevent cars from being stolen right off the lot during services.  The church also kept the entrances locked even during services and activities, posting ushers to open the doors for those coming in.  

After the shooting at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, in 1999, during which seven people were killed and seven wounded, mostly teenagers attending a "See you at the Pole" rally, most churches in Texas posted lookouts at their entrances, though they are not allowed to declare themselves as "gun free zones" and people can conceal carry right into the church.  The presence of armed church members has not prevented some of the most spectacular church shootings in the country, including in the small town of Sutherland Springs, where a gunman literally murdered half of the congregation, 26 people, and wounded an additional 22 people out of the congregation of fewer than 60 people.  

Texas is a red state, and this shooting occurred during the presidency of Donald Trump.  So did the one at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, a Fort Worth suburb, where two people were murdered before any of the gun-totin' members could stop the shooter.  The Sutherland Springs shooting, by the way, ranks as the worst shooting in a house of worship in American history.  Sutherland Springs is a small town, 600 people, in a rural area outside San Antonio.  Uvalde is also a small town, two hours west of San Antonio, population 16,000.  

It's been encouraging to see students who were under fire at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were murdered, become gun control activists.  This is how democracy works.  Their help has been invaluable and I hope they're able to keep it up.  No American high school student should ever have that kind of experience to relate, but they live in Florida, which is another one of those places where Republicans were in charge when the gunman entered their school.  

Oh, and did I mention, this shooting also occurred during the Trump presidency, and also while Ron Desantis was governor.  If we use Republican logic related to crime, and the message they want to send in this campaign, both of those men should bear responsibility for these shootings and for Florida's high crime rate, one of the worst in the nation.  

If Crime and Public Safety are the Issue, Democrats are the Politicians with the Answers

The church I attend in Chicago, in the inner city, does not post armed guards in the foyer.  We do have ushers who watch the doors, that's just common sense, but in Chicago, it is illegal to carry a weapon inside a church without a permit and that fact makes it easy to protect the congregation and be alert to someone who might intend to do harm.  In some neighborhoods, there are shootings in the streets, but that's in any big city, and statistically, as has been seen, it's no more prolific here than any other large city, and not as bad as some smaller cities and rural areas. 

I frequently use public transportation, mainly the "L" trains and bus system, when I go downtown for medical appointments, out to eat or to an event.  It's virtually impossible to find parking near Wrigley Field but the L stop is just a block away, and while the trains can be crowded on game days, it's the best way to get there.  Do I keep an eye out and am I aware of my surroundings?  Of course.  But I did that when I lived in a suburban Republican area, too.  Crime can happen anywhere and it has no political preference.  

But, if I want effective law enforcement and politicians who care about my safety, I'm going to vote for Democrats.  The record is clear, they do a much better job with law enforcement than Republicans do.