WASHINGTON, DC, July 5 -- Crime across the U.S. is surging at rates that have not been seen in 100 years and Democrats, led by their progressive socialist colleagues in Congress, can’t understand why. Duh! Perhaps it has something to do with the way they vilify the police, the loathing they express for the cops who protect us and their insidious calls to “defund the police.”
Instead, they are now making the absurd allegation that it is Republicans who want to shortchange the police. The White House said so just a few days ago. In an interview with Fox News, Director of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond, shamelessly stated: "Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says 'defund the police. But the truth is, they defunded the police."
But voters know who to blame for the crime surge -- insurgent Democrats. Arguably the Washington Post and ABC News are not too kind to Republicans but they did a survey recently that shows voters believe crime is a top of the mind issue for them than at any time in the past 20 years believe that crime is an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem, according to the Internet news site, The Hill. The report found that “President Biden, in particular, to worry about the poll’s findings. It indicated that 48 percent of adults disapprove of the way he is dealing with crime, while only 38 percent approve.”
Director Richmond sought to put the blame on the GOP for the Defund the Police movement. He claimed that the proof is in the fact that they would not support the so-called American Rescue Plan, boondoggle legislation that, according to the Biden Treasury Department, would provide $21.6 billion for states, territories, and local governments to assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to the COVID-19 crisis.
But a better definition was provided by Townhall’s Katie Pavlich in an Opinion article she wrote: “When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked to name a single Republican who voted against the American Rescue Plan specifically in order to defund the police, she couldn't do it. They don't exist. The package was rejected because additional Wuhan coronavirus relief wasn't needed, and it was packed full of Democrat pet projects.”
It's no wonder that the Democrats do not want to own the mantra, Defund the Police. But it’s unlikely that miscreant lawmakers, including Reps. Ilhan Omar , Rashida Tlaib , Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley , to name just four, are ready to give up their attack on law and order. They have proudly, loudly and consistently denigrated the police, calling them the bad guys and demanding that they all be fired. Ms. Tlaib recently blasted this message on social media: “I am done with those who condone government funded murder. No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.”
On the other hand, the Republican have been preaching that instead of defunding the cops, we need to Defend the Police with the goal of a return to the days when citizens in cities big and small could sleep peacefully at night.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration harbors executives who are openly anti-police including two who are ironically employed by the Justice Department: Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. Ask them today and they’ll deny that they are in the ranks of those who want to cripple police. But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
In an Opinion article of her own, Ms. Clarke wrote that “Among activists and local governments, the meaning of "defund the police" ranges from reining in municipal police budgets to complete police abolition. For example, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to "dismantle" their police force.”
As for Ms. Gupta, in a letter she sent to the Senate Committee during a Judiciary Oversight Hearing on police use of force she wrote: “This moment of reckoning requires leaders, together with communities, to envision a new paradigm for public safety that respects the human rights of all people. That means not just changing policing practices, but shrinking the footprint of the criminal legal system, including police, in Black and Brown people’s lives. And it means shifting our approach to public safety away from exclusive investments in criminalization and policing, toward investments in economic opportunity, education, health care, and other public benefits.”
All of this messaging apparently resonated and more than 20 cities across the country reduced police budgets. Top among them, according to Bloomberg News, were Austin, TX, New York City, Minneapolis, Seattle and Denver. Austin made the biggest cut, 33%. New York and Minneapolis, cut budgets by 14.8%, Seattle by 11.2% and Denver by 9.8%. It didn’t work out so well, as the new crime wave suggests.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are desperately trying to downplay the new spike in violent crime, at least in Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, for example, got into a squabble with a reporter during a press conference last week when she claimed "crime is on the decline. All of our major indices show a decline in our crime and our homicides and our shootings year over year are down."
But data from both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times challenge her assessment.
Tracking by the Tribune shows that nearly 200 more residents were shot in the streets of the Windy City this year than last year-- 1,587 people so far in 2021 versus 1,392 in the same period in 2020. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times reported that “there have been at least 317 homicides in Chicago this year, up from 302 this time last year. Last year ended with 775 homicides, an increase of more than 50% from 506 murders in 2019.”
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