When Spartacus — I mean Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) — says that Democrat senate candidate Graham Platner has some questions to answer, you know that the situation is serious. Platner, the adulterous sexting, Nazi-tattoo-bearing former Marine and current oyster farmer, is grabbing most of the headlines emanating from our 23rd state. Before his national notoriety, however, Maine was already experiencing a host of unwelcome developments.

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Head to Maine, Young Man

Early in my career, I worked for a management consulting firm in Rockville, Connecticut. As the firm’s youngest person, I was often sent on long-distance trips to handle clients. One of my destinations was the state of Maine, which I visited eight times, traveling to many of its cities.

During these trips, I noticed how placid the state seemed compared to other states I had visited in my budding career. Long stretches of land in Maine seemed desolate, dotted with vast fields of potato patches. People took things in stride, seemingly never in a rush. Everyone appeared accommodating, law-abiding, and proud of their state. The state was conservative in voting, lifestyle, and outlook. Republican Margaret Chase Smith, a pioneer of sorts in Congress, served as a representative from 1940 to 1949, and as a U.S. senator from 1949 to 1973.

Recently, when I learned how much Maine has changed over the years, it came as a shock.

Crime and Corruption

While some reports suggest that violent crime rates in Maine have decreased in recent years – including incidents of robbery, aggravated assault, and rape – a lingering, troubling reality persists. Governmental bodies within Maine, led by its major cities, have been known to provide false crime data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and to other federal agencies, creating the misleading impression that crime rates are lower than they actually are.

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Unbeknownst to many Americans, the FBI compiles crime statistics from the data reported by local police departments. If those departments manipulate or falsify the numbers, the FBI has little chance of knowing this and invariably continues to rely upon and publish inaccurate information.

As one in-state reporter pointed out, it is difficult to accept the lower crime statistics when communities are daily inundated with harrowing reports of stabbings, shootings, beatings, and murders.

Are Demographics Destiny?

Two generations ago, Maine was 98 percent Caucasian. Today, its demographics have changed significantly, as have many other states across the nation. Two of its cities – Lewiston and Portland – have seen a steady rise in crime over the past few decades. Similar to the state of Minnesota, Maine has experienced a notable increase in its Somali population, which has coincided with an uptick in criminal activity.

Maine's Medicaid system, for example, referred to as MaineCare, has come under extensive review following an array of fraud schemes that have siphoned millions of dollars from the program. Investigators at both the federal and state levels have uncovered multiple instances that reveal a clear pattern of fraud. Many such instances involve individuals arriving from Somalia.

In Lewiston and Portland, crime has reached levels previously unseen in Maine’s history. In the mid-1970s, it was rare for someone to be shot, and even rarer for someone to die from a gunshot wound. Cities would go five or six years without a single murder. Today, multiple murders occur frequently in Lewiston and Portland. Augusta and Bangor are no better; they have witnessed an increase in murders over the past year, whereas just a few decades ago, their murder rate was nearly nonexistent.

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Correlations Worth Examining

Few will publicly state that there could be a connection between the influx of Somali immigrants and the rise in violent crime and fraud in Maine. To be sure, one must not necessarily equate correlation with causation, but often the link is significant.

All the while, the state’s political leaders promote the narrative that diversity strengthens communities, claiming that immigrant populations contribute positively. This rhetoric fails to acknowledge any association between the demographic shifts and the increase in crime. Yet, even an intelligent 10-year-old could draw realistic conclusions.

This crime and immigration phenomenon is not isolated to Maine. Across New England and other so-called progressive states, once calm and orderly communities have become increasingly violent.

Ominous Trends

When did disorder become a normal part of everyday life in these areas? How deep does the disregard of politicians run, and how high do crime rates have to rise before policies are introduced to restore order?

Sadly, it seems unlikely we will see such action in the immediate future. What cities like Lewiston, Portland, Augusta, and Bangor are experiencing – similar to trends in Minneapolis, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York – demonstrates that there is no upper limit to what progressive politicians are willing to impose on their state’s long-standing populations.

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Will Democrat voters ever wake up from their self-imposed stupor and stop electing leaders who aid in actively destroying their communities from within? It is hard to say, but without timely, drastic changes, the situation is only going to get worse.

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