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Expert flips script on Dems pushing ‘cherry-picked’ crime stats to resist Trump’s DC crackdown
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Democrats across the country have been pushing back on President Trump’s D.C. crime crackdown, citing statistics purportedly showing that crime in the nation’s capital is down or even at historic lows, but an expert who spoke to Fox News Digital is pushing back on that narrative.
«These Democrats are citing statistics from the FBI, from its uniform crime report. And the problem with that is that they’re portraying it as if it’s a record of violent crime,» Jim Agresti, president of the nonprofit research institute Just Facts, told Fox News Digital shortly after Trump announced he was sending federal resources to the nation’s capital to confront crime in the city.
«But really what it is is a record of crimes that are reported to the police and then those of those crimes that get reported to the FBI. It’s not a full record of all violent crimes, and this is a problem. And the FBI is very explicit about this when they present the data in their formal report every year, where they say, ‘Do not directly compare the data from year to year because there are differences in how frequently people report crimes and how frequently the FBI gets that data from the local police agencies.’»
While many prominent Democrats, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, have insisted violent crime is at a 30-year low in the city, Agresti told Fox News Digital the «best way to understand the state of violent crime» in any jurisdiction is to look at the number of murders because it is a violent crime that is difficult to «sweep under the rug» because it «produces a dead body.»
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Fox News Digital spoke to Just Facts President Jim Agresti about the crime situation in Washington, D.C. (Getty)
«When we look at the murder data for DC, we see that it is not a situation that is lower now than it’s been in the last 30 years. Quite the opposite,» Agresti explained. «It is currently 83% higher than it was at its low point a dozen years ago. So, there is a serious problem with serious crime, violent crime in D.C., and the city now, the nation’s capital, has a murder rate that is five times the U.S. average.»
The chances of a person facing a violent crime in Washington, D.C., have dropped in recent years, but the possibility of dying during such a crime has skyrocketed, data shows, Fox News Digital reported on Wednesday.
Lethality in D.C. jumped by a whopping 341% when compared to 2012 data, the study found, reporting that there were 13 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2012 and 57 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2024.
Agresti explained that while many people operate with the belief that crime spiked across the country during and because of COVID, the issue actually began getting worse specifically when the Black Lives Matter rioting erupted.
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Members of the National Guard monitor entries at the staging area of local and federal law enforcement agencies inside the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility Aug. 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Craig Hudson For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
«That makes a lot of sense,» Agresti said. «Police were vilified. They pulled back out of fear of being hurt. People were talking about defunding the police, and there was overall mayhem in this country. So, that rise, by the way, that people blame on COVID actually didn’t start with COVID, and it didn’t appear in other countries. It happened here where we had these BLM riots.»
Agresti told Fox News Digital there is a «clear connection» between crime in the United States and the «Defund the Police» movement and that most people don’t grasp the «full extent» of the crime problem in this country.
«We had roughly 17,000 murders last year,» Agresti explained. «Imagine if all of them made national news. At the current rate of murders in this county, roughly one in every 230 people in the United States will have their lives cut short by being murdered. That statistic is so unbelievable.»
In addition to the «staggering» facts about murder, Agresti said data compiled by Just Facts shows one in 10 women in the United States are raped in the course of their lives.
«Think about the horror of that, and beyond all this pain, suffering, death, there’s also a financial cost to crime,» Agresti said. «It’s been quantified in a 2021 academic paper, and, bottom line, crime in all of its forms, pain, death, suffering, financial loss, activities we take to prevent crime, they amount to a cost on our US economy of roughly $40,000 per U.S. household.»
Questions have also been raised about local crime stats from D.C. showing crime is down so far this year, with many pointing to news reports that a D.C. police commander was recently suspended for allegedly altering crime data.
Agresti said anyone can «cherry-pick» crime statistics to promote a specific agenda but that it is important to also realize that many crimes also go unreported due to various factors, including animosity toward police or the belief that calling the police won’t yield results.
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«The vast majority of crime goes unreported, and another phenomenon that’s really, really disturbing is the amount of crimes that are solved,» Agresti said. «It used to be in this country, in 1960, that 92% of all murders are solved. In 2023, that figure was down to 58%, meaning that 40-plus percent of people who committed murders got away with it, and they’re out there to commit them again.»
As of Thursday, 800 Trump-authorized National Guard troops were in Washington, D.C., supporting other federal law enforcement agencies with «monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities and officers, traffic control posts and area beautification,» according to the State Department.
President Donald Trump gestures in the State Dining Room of the White House Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Trump’s move to crack down on crime in the capital, which the White House says is happening at levels that dwarf capitals in other far more impoverished countries across the world, has sparked protests led by liberal activists and outrage from some elected Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
«When politicians are saying, ‘We don’t have to worry about this, it’s the lowest crime rate in 30 years,’ they are abdicating their responsibility,» Agresti told Fox News Digital.
«The Declaration of Independence said that governments are instituted to protect the rights of people, including their life, their liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we have right now is many politicians and governments who are doing an extremely poor job of that, and the pain and suffering is unbelievable. It’s just so broad and so horrible.»
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report
politics,washington dc,crime world,donald trump,police and law enforcement
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Obama dragged for ‘headache’-inducing presidential center update that has visitors squinting
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Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is again coming under scrutiny for its architectural design — this time leaving locals scratching their heads over confusing text wrapped around the top of the building.
«I’m outside the Obama Center museum tower right now,» Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bay posted to X Monday, sparking a deluge of mockery from locals and conservatives.
«The new letters — an excerpt from Obama’s Selma speech — are tough read to me, giving off the lorem ipsum vibes,» he added, referring to placeholder «dummy» text frequently used in graphic design templates to fill space with scrambled Latin.
Obama’s presidential center — which includes a library, athletic facilities, a museum and more — is slated to open in June after years of delays that included lawsuits and federal reviews of opening the 20-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER SLAMMED FOR PROMOTING ‘FAR-LEFT’ AGENDA ON PUBLIC LAND
The text of former President Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of «Bloody Sunday» in Selma, Alabama, is wrapped around the side of the upcoming presidential center in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The construction includes a 225-foot museum tower with the text of Obama’s 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights demonstrators were met with violent resistance from local law enforcement in a watershed moment that helped galvanize support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER JOB LISTINGS PUSH ‘ANTI-RACISM’ PLEDGE AHEAD OF OPENING
The text of Obama’s speech, inscribed on the upper echelon of the tower, reads: «You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.»
Critics of the building had a field day on X in response to the building update, including one user comparing it to a «Klingon prison» in a nod to «Star Trek,» while others lampooned the alleged inability to read the text of the building.
«What don’t you understand about,» Targeted Victory vice president Logan Dobson posted. «YOU ARE AMERICA ED BY HABILAND UNENCUMBERED ADY TO SEIZE WE,» he continued, mocking the confusing lay out of the text.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER BREAKS SILENCE OVER CONTROVERSIAL BUILDING DESIGN
Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is facing mounting scrutiny over a speech inscription on the building that has left viewers confused. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
«The dyslexic in me is not amused,» journalist and columnist Salena Zito posted.
«He put his own speech on the outside of his library?» one user posted. «Find yourself someone who loves you like Obama loves himself.»
«I gave up after developing a headache three lines from the top,» one user posted.
PROTESTERS RAGED, CRITICS MOCKED — NOW OBAMA SAYS HIS LIBRARY’S ACTUALLY OPENING
«It looks like a WW2-era German anti-aircraft tower,» another posted.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama gives her remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Sept. 28, 2021. (Sebastian Hidalgo/Reuters)
«I noticed when I was in the air that the sentences wrap around the west and south sides of the building, and looks decent in a very specific spot on the ground or very good from the air…but like that’s not an ideal design in my opinion,» a Chicago photojournalist posted to X.
Other users didn’t take issue with the campus itself, but remarked how the construction is gentrifying the South Side.
«It actually does look good,» one user posted. «Love or hate the guy, at least the presidential library will have a nice park for people to walk through. I get the whole blue vs red thing. But right now the main problem seems to be the gentrification and house price increases in the neighbourhood.»
The main tower of the Obama Presidential Center rises above Jackson Park in Chicago as construction continues on the privately run campus. (Fox 32 Chicago)
The text inscription was preparing for installation at the end of 2025, according to the Obama Foundation’s website.
«At the Museum Building, crews are preparing support structures ahead of the installation of screen text taken from President Obama’s speech «You Are America,» which marked the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches,» the Obama Foundation said in its year-end recap on construction for 2025.
The Obama Foundation has celebrated the center repeatedly since it was first announced more than a decade ago, describing it ahead of its opening as «a lively community hub, economic anchor, and beacon of democracy right here on the South Side of Chicago.»
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The campus has come under scrutiny from locals over gentrification concerns and over its Brutalist-style of architecture, a post-war-era style popularized in the 1950s known for its modular and minimalist designs. For locals in Chicago, they’ve dubbed the building the «The Obamalisk,» according to the New York Post, in a jab at the Brutalist-inspired design.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Obama Foundation for additional comment Tuesday morning.
barack obama,michelle obama,white house,chicago
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Italy cheers faith and flag in Milan after Paris’ ‘woke’ Olympic spectacle sparked culture clash, experts say
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Paris and Milan-Cortina delivered two sharply different Olympic spectacles, one that ignited culture-war backlash and another that leaned into heritage and national pride, a contrast some observers say mirrors the political paths of Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni.
Olympic opening ceremonies rank among the world’s most-watched cultural broadcasts, making them powerful stages for nations to project how they see themselves and how they want to be seen. «Paris tried to reinterpret tradition. Milan showcased tradition,» Hugh Dugan, an Olympic Truce advocate and former U.S. diplomat, told Fox News Digital, framing the contrast between the ceremonies as part of a broader debate over the role of culture, politics and identity in the Games.
Dugan described the 2024 Paris ceremony as «a deliberately disruptive, decentralized, urban spectacle… visually bold but polarizing,» built around a narrative collage of modern France, diversity and reinterpretation of history. He said choreography and costuming «often carried explicit social commentary,» fueling debate over whether parts of the ceremony were intentionally provocative or ideologically driven.
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The Trocadero venue while the delegations arrive, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, July 26, 2024. (Francois-Xavier Marit/Pool Photo via AP)
The 2024 Paris opening ceremony, staged along the Seine, sparked controversy after a segment widely interpreted as referencing Leonardo da Vinci’s «Last Supper» drew criticism from Christian groups and conservative commentators before organizers clarified the intent and apologized for any offense.
The moment became a flashpoint in France’s wider culture-war debate over identity, religion and the meaning of public symbolism. The Conversation reported that the ceremony triggered a national discussion over «woke ideology» and France’s cultural direction.
Some of the performers who appeared in the Last Supper depiction in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)
Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the U.K.-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, «The Olympics have become a stage for cultural politics as much as sport.»
She continued, «President Emmanuel Macron’s France leaned into progressive, ‘woke’ politics and post-national symbolism, while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Italy emphasized heritage, tradition and unapologetic national pride. These aesthetic choices reflect a widening divide over Europe’s cultural and political future.»
Flagbearers Arianna Fontana and Federico Pellegrino of Team Italy walk in the parade during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics at San Siro Stadium on Feb. 6, 2026, in Milan, Italy. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Dugan praised the Italian games, saying the Milan-Cortina Winter Games ceremony highlighted «tradition, harmony, co-existence and the Olympic truce,» emphasizing heritage, landscapes and the athlete procession over political messaging. He called the Italian approach «panoramic, heritage-driven, classical,» compared with Paris’ «maximalist, narrative-driven, experimental» style.»
IOC CHIEF LAMENTS ‘DISTRACTING’ NEWS CYCLE AHEAD OF 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends the Inauguration ceremony of the Olympic Torch Relay for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games at the Quirinale Palace, on Dec. 5, 2025, in Rome. (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
Reporting on the Milan ceremony described it as a unity-focused event celebrating Italian culture, design and scenery while pushing past pre-Games tensions and highlighting the Olympic ideal of connection and peace. Coverage emphasized tradition and spectacle rather than ideological symbolism, with performances rooted in classical imagery and national identity.
Dugan, who recently launched a Truce Compliance Index tracking how countries observe the tradition, argued the difference reflected two distinct philosophies about what Olympic ceremonies should represent.
Italian actress Matilda De Angelis performs during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Paris leaned into modern identity and pluralism, he said, presenting an ambitious cultural narrative that some audiences found bold while others viewed it as politically charged. Milan, by contrast, centered its message on timeless themes tied to heritage, human connection and the Olympic truce.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, waves during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26, 2024, in Paris. (Christian Liewig-Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
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The contrast between the ceremonies highlights a broader evolution of the Olympics themselves. Host nations increasingly use opening ceremonies to project national identity and values, whether through modern reinterpretation or traditional symbolism.
olympics,italy,france,culture opinion,sports,emmanuel macron
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Conmoción en Italia: un nene de dos años está en coma tras haber sido trasplantado con un corazón “quemado”
Tommaso, un nene italiano de dos años y tres meses, pelea por su vida en el Hospital Monaldi de Nápoles después de un trasplante fallido de corazón. El órgano, que llegó desde el hospital San Maurizio de Bolzano, habría sufrido daños irreversibles por el uso de hielo seco durante el traslado, según la hipótesis que investiga la Justicia.
La situación es desesperante: el menor permanece en coma inducido y conectado a una máquina de oxigenación por membrana extracorpórea (ECMO), mientras su familia espera la llegada de un nuevo órgano compatible. El caso generó conmoción en Italia y puso bajo la lupa los protocolos de conservación y transporte de órganos para trasplante.
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El corazón se habría “quemado” por el frío extremo durante el traslado
De acuerdo a la investigación de los Carabineros del NAS (Unidad especializada en seguridad alimentaria y sanitaria), el corazón fue transportado en un contenedor frigorífico convencional con hielo seco, en lugar de hielo tradicional. Este material puede alcanzar temperaturas cercanas a los -80 grados, lo que habría provocado que el órgano se “queme” por el frío y quedara inutilizable. Investigan a seis medicos por el trasplante fallido. (Foto: gentileza Il Mattino).
“El uso de hielo seco implica temperaturas de 70 grados bajo cero, lo que provocó que el órgano se quemara por el frío”, explicó el abogado de la familia, Francesco Petruzzi, en declaraciones a la televisión pública italiana. La caja refrigerada ya fue incautada y la Justicia ordenó un peritaje para determinar si se incumplieron los protocolos de conservación y transporte.
El trasplante falló y el menor sigue en estado crítico
El trasplante se realizó el 23 de diciembre, pero el nuevo corazón no funcionó correctamente desde el primer momento. El nene tuvo que ser conectado a una máquina ECMO y permanece internado en terapia intensiva, en estado crítico.
Para agravar el cuadro, una segunda opinión médica del Hospital Bambino Gesù de Roma advirtió que el chico presenta una hemorragia cerebral y una infección, lo que complica aún más la posibilidad de someterlo a un nuevo trasplante.
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No obstante, el hospital Monaldi informó que “el Equipo Cardíaco considera que el joven paciente aún cumple los requisitos para permanecer en la lista de espera para trasplantes”.
El niño, que sufre desde que tenía cuatro meses una cardiopatía dilatada, “permanece hospitalizado en cuidados intensivos bajo estrecha monitorización médica e instrumental, así como en consultas con especialistas”, indicó el comunicado
La madre de Tommaso: “Mi hijo es un guerrero”
“Mi hijo es un guerrero. Y yo, como él, tampoco me rendiré. Debe llegar un corazón nuevo para que pueda regresar a casa”, comentó este fin de semana Patrizia Mercolini, la mamá de Tommaso, en las puertas del hospital Monaldi.
“Algunos días después nos llamaron para decirnos que el corazoncito nuevo no funcionaba, por lo que tenían que conectar a mi hijo a una máquina para la oxigenación fuera del cuerpo de la sangre mientras esperaba a un nuevo órgano. Esperemos que llegue pronto. Las horas pasan y hay poco tiempo“, explicó la mujer.
Investigación judicial y suspensión del servicio de trasplantes
La Fiscalía investiga a seis profesionales de la salud por un posible delito de lesiones por negligencia.
Mientras tanto, el servicio de trasplantes pediátricos del Hospital Monaldi fue suspendido de manera cautelar y las autoridades revisan los protocolos aplicados en todo el proceso.
La familia del menor, que lleva 55 días hospitalizado, pidió toda la documentación clínica para buscar nuevas valoraciones médicas, incluso en otros centros de Italia y Europa.
El caso cobró mucha relevancia en los medios italianos y la primera ministra, la ultraderechisgta Giorgia Meloni, llamó a la madre de Tommaso este martes. “Se hará justicia”, le dijo Meloni a Mercolino, y prometió hacer “todo lo posible” para encontrar un nuevo donante compatible.
Italia, trasplante, Corazón
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