This article is taking it as a given that the number of cops is definitely connected with the amount of violent crime - like either it has to be a positive or a negative correlation and we have to have an argument about which one it is
It is immediately obvious to me that violent crime is mostly a function of the level of misery and desperation and maladjustedness in society and has very little to do with the number of cops, in either direction (unless you live in a neighborhood that’s just overrun with crime and not enough police to try to do anything about it even in the most serious cases, but I do not think that is most of the US).
This is a bad article with a misguided central premise, I think
