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During the recent governors' candidate debate, Joy Hofmesiter, who is running against Kevin Stitt for the top office in our state made some comments about Oklahoma being more violent now than both New York and California. Both Stitt and the moderator of the debate questioned Hofmeister on her statements and after the debate, there was a plethora of social media opinions posted as well.

Today, the FBI and the CDC both posted information that supports Hofmeister's claims.

Specifically, the FBI, which counts violent crimes as homicides, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, released statistics from the most recent year of recording (2020) that shows Oklahoma had 458.6 violent incidents while California had only 442 and New York had 368. The numbers are for every 100,000 people.

CDC, which only counts mortality rates due to homicides but uses the same 100,000 grouping, showed Oklahoma with 9, California with 6.1 and New York with 4.7.

Neither organization attempted to attribute the rise in numbers to any specific reason.

(Photo courtesy of Joy for OK campaign)