According to this story in the New York Times, the number of murders in New York City dropped to 328 in 2014. That’s the lowest figure since at least 1963, when the Police Department began collecting reliable statistics.

As a reference point, in 1990, the number of murders was 2,245–roughly seven times what it is today. This drop in murders from 2013 (335) capped a year of lower numbers in nearly every major crime category.

This constitutes one of the most stunning social policy successes of the last 50 years, and it didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of tremendous professionalism by the NYPD, from the quality of its police officers to crime-fighting approaches that include increased focus on the small number of people responsible for a majority of offenses and their patterns of criminal behavior; embracing the “Broken Windows” approach to fighting crime; and reliance on a data-driven management model referred to as CompStat, which is responsible for lowering the crime rate and improving the quality of life in New York City.

All of which makes the anti-cop narrative that has been advanced by people like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Attorney General Eric Holder, along with President Obama, so indefensible. Thanks to the sacrifices and excellence of police officers all across the United States, and especially in our large urban areas, our streets are far safer and the quality of life in our cities is far better than it was a quarter-century ago. This occurred despite the fact that many criminologists were predicting crime rates would sharply rise throughout the 1990s and beyond because of demographic reasons (a bulge in the number of young males) and because the percentage of children born out of wedlock continued to go up. Instead, rates of murder, violent crime, and overall crime have dropped dramatically. For example, from 2000 to 2012, the violent crime rate fell over 23 percent–and before that, from 1993 to 2000, the the rate fell 32 percent.

For people like de Blasio, Holder, and Obama to suggest that systemic racism is characteristic of our police departments and to constantly undermine confidence in cops is disgraceful, particularly given the tremendous achievements by police officers in protecting innocent people from harm and maintaining order in our streets. It tells you a very great deal about the progressive mind that those on the left are so eager to attack the police even when they are performing their duties with great distinction.

We live in a time during which cops should be praised and honored for their bravery and their accomplishments. Instead we have political leaders acting in ways that are undercutting and slandering law enforcement officers. The result is a poisonous climate in which a diseased and malignant mind like that of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who wrote on an Instagram account, “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let’s take 2 of theirs,” can be catalyzed to lethal violence. Which explains why I’m supportive of police officers who have on several occasions now turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio. Their contempt for him is well-deserved. “We might be reaching a tipping point with the mind-set of officers, who are beginning to wonder if the risks they take to keep communities safe are event worth it anymore,” Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said. “We’re seeing a natural recoil from … officers who don’t feel like certain people who need to have their backs have their backs.” (New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, when asked about the role of Obama and Holder in the current climate, said officers “feel that they are under attack from the federal government at the highest level.”)

It is all quite contemptible–and for the left, quite predictable.