Authorities within the former Soviet Union were notorious for making outlandish claims about the superiority of communism over capitalism. One such false claim was that the Soviet Union was crime-free. Authorities asserted that communism met the needs of the people, so crime was unnecessary. On the same token, the Soviets declared that the shortcomings of capitalism created fertile grounds for criminality to flourish. This was a complete communist lie.
Literature, Serial Killers, and Soviet Secrecy
The novel, Child 44, captures the absurdities of the Soviet claim that the communist state was crime-free. The fictional story is set against the backdrop of Stalinist Russia, in which a Soviet secret policeman was exiled to a remote region of the communist empire for not denouncing his wife. While looking into the gruesome murder of a child, the policeman discovered that even more children had probably been slain by a sadistic killer. His investigation was stymied, in part, by authorities, who insisted that crime does not exist in the Soviet Union.
The story was based on an actual serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was known as the Red Ripper.
Political Prisoners and the Gulag System
In the former Soviet Union, all government information was considered a state secret, which included crime statistics. The Soviets made it a practice of redefining language, and this included the definition of a criminal. Political prisoners (known as 58s by the state) were considered a greater threat to Soviet governance, so they were specifically targeted. A mis-chosen word, a glance, anything could land you in the Soviet concentration camp system (GULAG) with the designation of being a 58.
The Brutality of Urkas in Stalin’s Reign
During Stalin’s reign of the Soviet Union, hardened criminals, known as urkas, were considered “class allies” by the USSR. The Soviet dissident and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn noted that this term was “derived from Marxist-Leninist class theory.” Collectively, all prisoners were known as zeks.
Urkas sentenced to the GULAGs added an extra level of brutality to the lives of the political prisoners. They included murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals: the worst of the worse. Furthermore, the urkas were favored by the guards and prison authorities made them trustees and used them to police the 58s. They could rape, murder, assault and steal from the political prisoners with impunity.
The U.S. After George Floyd
In the United States, law enforcement was drastically altered to fit the new liberal landscape after 2020. After the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, dozens of American cities across the country experienced a wave of violence. The George Floyd protests, also remembered as the 2020 George Floyd protest wave, reshaped the debate on crime and policing.
Journalist Andy Ngo covered the violence in Unmasked: Inside ANTIFA’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, detailing how this group, along with BLM and other anarchists, tried to instigate general insurrection across the USA. Arson and looting were widespread, especially in the U.S. cities of Portland and Seattle. Video footage shows rioters attacking police for days on end, destroying property and setting blazes. In Minneapolis, rioters burned down a police station.
Defund the Police and Urban Crime Waves
What is crucial to understand is that unscrupulous politicians shackled law enforcement efforts to stop rioters. Rioters who were arrested had their charges dismissed by liberal district attorneys. Authorities caved to the political pressure asserted by Black Lives Matter, while simultaneously trying to curry political favor with liberal supporters. The legacy media was also complicit, especially when they kept referring to rioters as protesters.
Besides riots, the country experienced a spike in crime in 2020, especially in urban areas. Calls for the defund the police movement, the vilification of law enforcement, cashless bail for violent offenders, and liberal district attorneys dropping charges against a multitude of lawbreakers contributed to a surge of criminal activity.
Chicago, Bail Reform, and Political Optics
Case in point: the city of Chicago has racked up the “most murders of any U.S. city for the past thirteen years.” This wave of violence was made worse by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s championing of a “No Cash Bail Law,” which has put violent offenders back on the streets.
California’s Prop 47 and the Rise of Retail Theft
In 2014, Californian politicians were able to pass California Prop 47, a law that decriminalized petty crimes such as minor drug possession and shoplifting. Politicians asserted that this initiative would save taxpayer money by shunting drug addicts into treatment and giving minor offenders a pass on prosecution.
What California got instead was a major increase in minor crime (along with violent crime), which devastated retail businesses over ten years. This surge is often linked to retail theft California, as stores across the state suffered losses and communities saw a decline in quality of life.
Manipulated Crime Statistics and National Outrage
Democrats have countered that crime is declining across the U.S., especially in urban areas. Critics have fired back, accusing police officials around the country of manipulating crime statistics. In Washington, D.C., metropolitan police leadership is being investigated for “deliberately manipulated crime data.” Supposedly, high-ranking officials had patrolmen “take a report for a lesser offense.” One lawman described that cops were pressured to report “crimes as felony assault” which were not listed on the department’s daily stats.
Political Violence and Assassinations in 2024–2025
The spotlight on crime intensified in 2024 with the two attempts on the life of President Donald Trump and the assassination of the CEO of a major insurance corporation. People rejoiced at this targeted killing online, while others wore t-shirts praising the killer.
Elon Musk earned ire for exposing government fraud, with numerous Tesla vehicles vandalized and dealerships attacked. In late August 2025, closed-circuit cameras captured the brutal, unprovoked murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light rail by a criminal arrested more than a dozen times. Outrage grew when the city tried to suppress the video.
The violence only worsened when a sniper in Utah assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025. Once again, some legacy media outlets attempted to half-heartedly sympathize with the killer, while others vilified the conservative commentator who championed free speech narratives on U.S. campuses.
