Governor touts drop in crime as rebuke of Trump

'Double-digit' tumble counters a MAGA narrative about a state overrun by mayhem.

- BY SONJA SHARP AND LIBOR JANY

ALEX BRANDON Associated Press

TRUMP constantly casts the state as being lawless.

Gov. Gavin Newsom used his final State of the State address to underscore California's jaw-dropping crime figures — stats that he said refute the president's claims about widespread murder and mayhem.

To put into perspective some of the numbers cited by the governor on Thursday:

The last time homicides were this low in Oakland, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was visiting Joan Baez at Santa Rita Jail to commend her on her recent arrest in protest of the Vietnam draft.

Killings haven't been so rare in San Francisco since superstar Marilyn Monroe wed baseball legend Joe DiMaggio at City Hall.

And violent deaths in the city of Los Angeles fell to rates not seen since the Beatles played Dodgers Stadium, their penultimate public show.

"We have seen double-digit decreases in crime overall in the state of California," Newsom said. "We've got more work to do, but to those with that California derangement syndrome, I'll repeat — it's time to update your talking points."

The governor's remarks follow reporting by The Times that showed L.A.'s homicide rate is nearing a record low, mirroring trends in other cities nationwide.

With the counts based on data from the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, President Trump's insistence that crime in California is out of control has come to seem increasingly bombastic. Recently, the president has modified his message to warn of a possible crime resurgence.