GPD Must Not Relax After Mob War

With a mysterious and marked drop-off in murders in the last month and rumors that the mob war has been somehow halted, it may seem like GPD can reduce its focus on fighting violent crime. But this would be a mistake — the mob war may have ended, but violent crime still takes a terrible physical and psychological toll on Gotham citizens.

Despite being the primary focus of the media's attention when reporting on crime, mob violence accounts for only a small percentage of criminal activity in Gotham. A cursory look at raw police statistics reveals that the majority of reported crime is not mob connected: purse snatching, home burglary, liquor store holdups, pickpocketing, and their like dominate police blotters.

Anecdotal evidence points to the same conclusion for non-reported crime. Crimes like these cost the people of Gotham millions of dollars every year. Worse, they cost the people their sense of safety and trust in their government.

Living in perpetual fear is no way to be. We are no longer brute animals roving across the wilderness with clubs. We live in cities to enjoy the riches of our culture, to raise our children in an enlightened environment. Constant fear makes all that impossible.

This is why it is imperative that the police not let up their fight against crime.

Even today, we are seeing an increase in so-called "motiveless" crimes — crimes that do not accord with any known pattern of criminal enterprise. So there is much that is left to be tackled.

Now that the mob war has slowed, police must turn their attention to day-to-day policing. We should see an increase of officers on the street with an even larger presence after dark. Police must be everywhere and in plain sight.