Schor: Former state rep's column about policing and crime misleading, disingenuous

I read with significant dismay the opinion from Tom Barrett last week. Either he is extremely out of touch or he is purposely deceiving the people of the Lansing area. Either way, I am very disappointed.

First and foremost, as Mr. Barrett should know, Lansing did not defund the police — and I was protested at my house by mostly non-Lansing residents for not doing so. In fact, Lansing has done the opposite and added police officers. I proposed, and the Lansing City Council approved, hiring additional police officers when crime spiked nationally during the pandemic. We did this using federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant dollars and additional revenue-sharing dollars from the state. Mr. Barrett must know this.

He should also know that crime is down in Lansing since 2021, just as it is in all of the diverse cities he mentioned. Lansing is no different from any other community where crime spiked during the pandemic. Crime is not limited to Lansing but happens everywhere. It has no borders. There are assaults, shootings, thefts, and speeding in his hometown in Eaton County, just like there are in Lansing, Grand Rapids, and other cities. To say otherwise is disingenuous.

I will add, Mr. Barrett had every opportunity to help cities and towns when he served in the state Legislature. Instead, he opposed background checks, safe storage laws, and other laws that are very popular even among gun owners, and will help reduce crime by keeping illegal guns off the streets. When he had an opportunity to do something about it, he fought against reasonable measures to keep our residents safe.

Mr. Barrett mentions crime statistics but without the context that Lansing shares information that many other communities do not. He ignores that Lansing is actually transparent with our numbers and provides our data to the public and the FBI, when many others don't. So in being transparent with our numbers, we are made to look bad because we share information. I understand that not everyone knows that, but Mr. Barrett should.

I served in the state House with Tom Barrett. While we disagreed on many things, I thought he was honest, but just wrong in his thinking. Either he has always thought this way about Lansing, or he is purposely trying to mislead our residents and voters. Shame on you, Mr. Barrett, for feeding the fears rather than talking about all of the great things happening here in Lansing that you should support.

Andy Schor is the mayor of Lansing.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Schor: Former state rep's column about policing and crime misleading, disingenuous