Reassuring the small homeowner
It is now widely acknowledged that those who express a concern about law and order may either be employing "code words" to convey their hostility to blacks (or to social change), or they may be genuinely worried about being mugged when they go out at night, or coming home to find their houses burgled. Nor are these two concerns mutually exclusive---although they are often mutually re-enforcing. Prima facie, a good reason makes a better rationalization than a poor reason.