The crazy part is this - crime is near record lows in the United States.

Indeed, right before COVID, crime had reached record lows in the United States. The COVID period "doesn't count" but most crime rates were even lower. After COVID restrictions were listed, crime rates rebounded somewhat, almost certainly due to reversion to the mean, but are still very close to historic lows.

(This same statement is mostly true in the entire world, it's not an American phenomenon.)

When I first came to New York City, it averaged roughly 1500 murders a year - now it's closer to 300, even though the population has increased by almost a quarter.

And yet Americans almost universally perceive that crime is very high and no one seems interested in telling them otherwise. They're putting the National Guard in the New York Subways, apparently, to "combat" subway crime.