Ex-President Donald Trump highlighted magnified crime statistics during an appearance at a police station in Howell, and redirected any backlash concerning his choice to speak about crime and public safety in an area known for its historical Ku Klux Klan affiliation and recent white supremacist activity. Trump, addressing an intimate gathering composed largely of law enforcement officers, promised to raise the number of police officers while directing federal agencies to focus more on border security. He implicated Vice President Kamala Harris, the nominee of the Democratic Party for the Presidency, of supporting the move to ‘defund the police’ — a claim firmly denied by the Harris campaign — and accused her of leniency toward criminal activity.
‘They pursue individuals like myself, but they avoid going after those who are actual perpetrators of violence,’ Trump articulated. ‘Since Harris’s tenure… violent crime has increased by 43%,’ was a claim he asserted, grading her with figures he said were validated by her own administration’s statistics. The crime rate did rise during the course of the pandemic, both nationally and within the state of Michigan, but the trend has been declining since.
Based on Federal Bureau of Investigation data, violent crime across the nation has seen a decrease of an estimated 6% in 2023, compared to 2022. When we look at the pre-pandemic year 2019, the last year before the pandemic of the Trump administration, and the latest year 2022 of the Biden administration for which comprehensive data exists, the violent crime rate is similar for both years. There were 381 incidents for every 100,000 people in the United States in these years. However, there was a rise in between to 399 per 100,000 people in 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration.
Despite this, the Council on Criminal Justice reported a continuous decline in violent crime as of 2024. Looking at Michigan’s recent history, the highest rate of violent crime was observed in 2021, a year after the peak in the United States. In 2019, Michigan’s violent crime rate was 439 per 100,000 individuals, lower than the rate of 461 per 100,000 in 2022. However, 2022 saw a drop from the previous year, 2021, which recorded a peak rate of 491 per 100,000.
Specific state data for 2023 is yet to be released, but Detroit, Michigan’s most populous city, recorded a 0.6% reduction in violent crime compared to 2022, marking 2023 as a year with the least number of homicides since 1966. Despite this statistical decline in violent crime since the commencement of the pandemic, Trump blamed the rise in violence on the open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Before Trump’s delivery, a number of Michigan sheriffs detailed recent crimes under investigation or prosecution in which illegal immigrants were alleged suspects. Former congressman Mike Rogers, who is the Republican candidate for Michigan’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, commented, ‘Crime has become a significant factor in this election.’, and Trump expressed that Harris had supported the ‘defund the police’ movement up until recently.
A review carried out by PolitiFact, a subsidiary of the Poynter Institute, contradicted Trump’s claims. Trump received substantial criticism from the Harris campaign amongst others for choosing Howell as the venue, particularly in light of a recent white supremacist rally that took place in the city on July 20th.
Some protesters that day were heard chanting ‘We love Hitler,’ and ‘we love Trump,’ though there was no evidence to suggest any association with the Trump campaign, which firmly dismissed any such connection. In regard to Trump’s event being staged in Howell, known historically as ‘the KKK capital of Michigan’, a Harris campaign spokeswoman, Alyssa Bradley, expressed her disapproval via email. She stated, ‘Trump’s choice of location for his ‘crime and safety’ talk is not discreet. It’s a blaring siren.’
After delivering his remarks, which were uncharacteristically subdued and lasted over 50 minutes, Trump faced a single question from the gathered journalists. The reporter was met with boos and shouts when she questioned why he chose Howell for the event, given its KKK history. ‘Who was present in 2021?’ Trump asked the reporter, pointing out President Joe Biden’s visit to Howell in that year.
The Harris campaign voiced their main concern which was Trump’s refusal to denounce the recent rally by white supremacists. David Siwik, a history professor at Lansing Community College, highlighted that Howell’s association with the KKK is more recent compared to other cities in Michigan, partly due to its close proximity to the Livingston County home of Robert Miles, a former KKK grand dragon convicted back in 1971 for planning to bomb school buses intended for desegregation in Pontiac.
Despite this, Siwik noted that the KKK held influence in numerous areas of Michigan, including Detroit, in the 1920s. He said, ‘If you held a political rally in any city in Michigan, you could tie it to having had, in the past, Ku Klux Klan activity.’, However, he suggested that Trump’s choice of Howell for his campaign event was likely intentional, given his past comments to the far-right Proud Boys group to ‘stand back and stand by’ in 2020.
While referring to Trump’s past, Siwik didn’t hold back and commented that, ‘Yes, we acknowledge the history here and that’s probably the reason we’re here,’ insinuating a connection between Trump’s choice of location and the city’s history. Local Democrat and activist Kasey Helton, who works in healthcare, expressed her frustration about the situation.
She, along with others, has been endeavoring tirelessly to change Howell’s reputation as a racist hotspot, and she fears that the media attention from Trump’s visit is a major setback. She mentioned that groups like the Livingston Diversity Council and Stand Against Extremism were striving ‘not to ignore, but to heal those old stains, those old wounds,’. After the recent activities, Helton commented, ‘Now, it feels like all those attempts at healing have been undone.’
Despite not having any direct links to the recent rallies, she held Trump responsible. If Trump hadn’t decided to come here, we wouldn’t be discussing Howell on a national level in this manner, she remarked. She found the situation ‘disheartening,’ but also showed resilience and promise by adding, ‘we can come back and we will come back.’