The 2021 U.S. murder rate is estimated to be as high as it was 25 years ago when close to 20,000 people were killed annually across the nation, according to a recent news analysis report.

In 2021, the FBI estimates that the murder rate was 6.9 murders per 100,000 people, just a hair lower than the 1996 rate of 7.4 murders per 100,000 people. It’s the closest the country has seen to figures that match the high-crime scourge of the 1990s, according to the analysis of crime data by The New York Times.

Howard Safir, who served as the New York Police Department commissioner during the crime spike of the 90s, told Fox News that he believes last year’s murder spike is at least partially attributable to “woke mentality that assumes that police are racist and brutal.”