California governor’s new data dashboard tracks declining crime rates, needles Trump
As part of his ongoing feud with the nation’s president, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced the launch of a new webpage that draws on data to chronicle the state’s declining rates of violent crime. It also displays facts about President Donald Trump and those in his orbit guilty of various crimes and ethical infractions.
“The website highlights a simple contrast,” the website reads. “Governor Newsom is driving crime down — and Donald Trump is pardoning drug lords and driving criminals into government.”
According to yearly California statistics, homicides are down 18%, robberies are down 18% and aggravated assaults are down 9%, on average across the state. Violent crime rates in large California cities appear to be driving down the average. The new webpage points out that while Oakland reported a 25% decline in violent crimes, and San Francisco a 21% drop, major cities outside California, such as Atlanta and Omaha, are seeing rises in violent crime.
The website contains photos of various figures, such as Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road website founder sentenced to life in prison in 2015, whom Trump pardoned in January. It displays George Santos, the former congressman from New York who last year pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. The photos, which include one of Trump himself, are superimposed on height charts to appear like mugshots, and each stamped in red with the word “FELON” or “CONVICTED”.
The webpage notes the president’s 34 felony counts of falsified business records, that he “cozies up to pedophiles like [Jeffrey] Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Trump Faith Advisor Robert Morris.” It notes several other decisions the president has made this year, such as to expand his cryptocurrency businesses, which have netted him and his family more than $3 billion, and to accept a gift from Qatar in the form of a $400 million jumbo jet.
It’s become common for governors, chief data officers and other technology-minded state officials to publish websites that draw on datasets to inform the public. Virginia’s Health Department, for instance, in April published several new data visualizations centered on maternal mortality and pregnancy-linked deaths, aimed at improving public health. Newsom’s webpage may be the first to so directly criticize a sitting president.
