Peter Hitchens argues that people do not see evidence of crime falling in everyday life, and he questions the credibility of official figures that suggest improvement. In his view, visiting local town centres reveals visible antisocial behaviour and widespread use of drugs, which he says undermines claims that crime trends are improving.
Hitchens presents his commentary as a response to politicians and others who have stated that crime has been declining for years. He characterizes public disagreement as a “moral panic” raised by authorities, while insisting that the public’s experience is more consistent with persistent problems than with the reported statistics.
Across the provided sources, both items are essentially identical in content and framing: both attribute the argument to Hitchens and focus on disputing crime-decline claims by contrasting them with perceived conditions in town centres. No additional reporting, data, or counter-evidence is included in the supplied excerpts, so the discussion does not specify which dataset or timeframe is being debated.
