Nuance is dead with the short posts. "whether crime is up or down" may not be possible to post about realistically. On what timescale, which crime, has the reporting about this crime changed, has the classification changed, is it about confirmed crime or reports, etc. etc.

Specific crime is such a complex system now that we can (both accidentally and maliciously) post factual information that presents a small fragment of the issue, sometimes helpful, sometimes misinforming for the context we're talking about.