Does anyone have a good conspiracy theory to explain what happened in California this summer? The streets and sidewalks are beautiful. The traffic hasn’t been this light since probably the 1960s. Crime in the state’s biggest cities has fallen off a cliff. The sky looks bluer. It’s as if the government put something in the water supply and the entire state became sane and wonderful again. Sure, Gavin Newsom will still be the nation’s worst governor for another year and a half, but things are definitely better. For no particular reason at all!
What happened?
First, let’s look at the crime stats in California’s cities.
In San Diego, murders are down 22% this year, and non-fatal shootings are down 32%. Motor vehicle thefts have dropped 20% compared to 2024, and the year is only half over. San Diego police have noted that they’re having 32% fewer encounters with known gang members this summer.
In Sacramento, murders are down 24%, violent crime has dropped by 19%, and property crimes are down 11%. It’s as if everyone suddenly decided to be law-abiding again!
One particularly hellish city—San Francisco—has seen amazing improvements. Everything still smells like a porta-potty for a convention of hobos, but crime in the city is way down compared to last year. Murders are down 35%. Violent crime has dropped 14% and property crimes are down 29%.
Motor vehicle thefts have dropped by 45% compared to 2024. That’s the largest single year-to-year drop in any crime category in San Francisco’s history.
In Los Angeles, murders are down 14% and the number of shooting victims has dropped by 19%. Gang-related homicides are down 26% and, in some neighborhoods, violent crime has dropped by 40%. Fentanyl arrests have increased by 250% this year, especially in Hollywood. Fentanyl has accounted for 52% of drug overdose deaths in LA in 2024, down from 64% under Joe Biden.
Here’s an amazing non-crime statistic about Los Angeles. Traffic fatalities in the city have fallen by about 7% compared to 2024. The NHTSA only has solid city-level data on traffic fatalities dating back to 2010. But in the past 15 years, this is the first time that Los Angeles has beaten the national average when it comes to people dying in car crashes.
Of course, we were being a bit sarcastic above when wondering what happened. We know the government isn’t putting happy pills in the water to make everyone throw their litter in the trash and behave peacefully.
It’s the ICE raids.
This is what it looks like when the Executive branch enforces the nation’s immigration laws. Donald Trump has Made California—
Well, okay, California isn’t Great Again, per se. There’s still a lot of work to do. But President Trump has made life in California noticeably better for the Americans there, in an incredibly short amount of time. People in LA County are 7% less likely to die in a car crash during their daily work commute. That didn’t happen in a vacuum.
The Summer of Beauty and Justice in California also puts the lie to one of the Democrat Party’s favorite talking points:
Illegal aliens commit fewer crimes than you lazy Americans!
If that’s true, wouldn’t the murder rates have gone up in all those cities with the peaceful, law-abiding illegal aliens all in hiding or self-deporting? There’s no one left but black and white Americans and legal immigrants. It should be a Wild West bloodbath in the Golden State right now!
Why are car thefts down almost 50% in San Francisco? Why are fewer people getting robbed and dying from fentanyl?
We’d love to hear the Democrat Party’s logic pretzel when they try to explain why life has gotten better in California’s cities by every measurable metric after having Donald Trump in charge for a few months.
US Senator and performance artist Alex Padilla (D-CA) recorded a video in a commercial district in LA this week and posted it on X. It was another one of his bleeding-heart soliloquys about how Trump has “gone too far” with immigration enforcement. What Padilla didn’t seem to realize was that without all the illegal aliens around, this is the prettiest that a Los Angeles commercial district has looked in years.
When you watch the clip below, look at how clean the sidewalk is. There are no discarded fast food wrappers or loaded dirty diapers anywhere. It looks like a quiet, peaceful street in some little town in Kentucky. It’s beautiful!
Check this out:
LOL: Democrat Senator Alex Padilla inadvertently makes an advertisement for mass deportations showing safe and less crowded streets in Los Angeles!
Incredible! pic.twitter.com/7VFMRIyYyk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 28, 2025