The homicide rate in the San Francisco Bay area has risen by 14% within the year. Instead of accepting that there is a problem with the way they are running their city, Hakeem Brown, a member of the city council in Vallejo with the highest number of murders in the area, says that it’s the fault of systemic racism.

“I think it’s the chickens coming home to roost,” Brown said. “I think it’s a lack of investment in our youth, a lack of opportunities … systemic racism in Vallejo and generations of poverty among poverty.” It has been mentioned in reports before that Brown is planning on running for mayor of the city. His statement gives an idea of the kind of leadership that he will be providing and what steps he will be taking to fight violent crimes should he become the mayor.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that while other serious crimes like robberies, rapes, and burglaries went down in the big cities in the San Francisco Bay area, homicide went up. It went up by as much as 14% in the first half of the year. Killings in the largest cities in the area increased from 98 from the same period as last year up to 112 for 2020.

While the drop in the other types of crime is always a good sign, it can be deceiving. Experts attribute it to the pandemic, which has confined people in their homes for long periods during a significant part of the year. The opportunities for criminals to commit crimes is not the same as before the pandemic. Given that fact, the reality that homicide rates have not gone down is, in fact, even more alarming than usual.

Other cities are seeing a spike in gun violence. Chicago, which has always been a national leader when it comes to gun violence, has seen 40 people shot, 5 of them fatally just this weekend alone. That level of violence is only a scene in war-torn areas, but Chicago can be described as a warzone. It’s a place where rival gangs are fighting each other, and ordinary residents are at their mercy. The city has very strict gun laws, but the only restrictions are to prevent law-abiding citizens from getting guns that they can use to protect their family. Chicago’s mayor has not offered anything concrete on how she will be fighting the worsening crime situation in her city.