Op-ed: Democrats responsible for crime wave sweeping America
Author: Tommy Hicks Jr.
Word Count: 728
As a candidate Joe Biden promised he would bring the country back to normal. But when it comes to skyrocketing crime across America, nothing is normal.
Right now an unprecedented crime wave is sweeping communities nationwide. Sadly this rampant surge in crime doesn’t come as a surprise – it is the predictable result of Democrats’ weak-on-crime, Defund the Police policies.
Last year our country experienced the sharpest increase in the murder rate ever recorded. More than 550 people were killed in Philadelphia in 2021, shattering the city’s record from 1990. Chicago just had the deadliest year in a quarter century. And in Atlanta there were more homicides than at any point in the past 30 years. It isn’t only murder that is on the rise. In New York City brazen car jackings have nearly doubled. In our nation’s capital, they are up 45%. A horrifying incident unfolded just this week in D.C. when a criminal stole a car with a mother and her child still inside, briefly kidnapping them.
The common denominator driving these examples and countless others? All of cities are controlled by Democrats. In fact, 14 large Democrat-run cities reported record homicide levels last year. Some of those cities’ veteran police officers have compared their city streets to war zones. In Joe Biden’s America it is a great time to be criminal. If you are a law-abiding citizen who simply wants to live in a safe community? Not so much. Throughout his presidency Biden has persistently turned a blind eye to public safety. He is more concerned about appeasing the likes of the socialist “Squad” than keeping ordinary Americans safe. Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki even recently mocked Americans concerned about Democrats’ soft-on-crime approach.
As Biden turns a blind eye to crime, his fellow Democrats are working overtime to make the situation worse. Law enforcement is already stretched thin because of Democrats’ demonizing anti-police rhetoric that has caused cops to retire in record numbers. And yet those same Democrats are still trying to force through authoritarian vaccine mandates that would take even more police officers off the streets. None of this makes sense, and it only emboldens criminals and encourages more crime.
Compounding the surge in crime are politically activist prosecutors whose campaigns are often bankrolled by liberal billionaires like George Soros. In New York City, newly sworn in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has vowed that he will stop prosecuting certain crimes like resisting arrest and trespassing; crimes that only might seem minor until they happen to you. Excusing crime at all levels only creates a culture of lawlessness that is destroying once-great American cities.
Democrats weak-on-crime approach also extends to bail, where their policies often let criminals back out on the streets in days – sometimes even hours – after being arrested, only to commit the same crimes over and over again. Americans know protecting criminals in service of a radical political agenda is wrong. They know that there is nothing compassionate about letting criminals off the hook.
While Democrats disingenuously cloak their dangerous policies under the guise of “racial justice,” the reality is that innocent victims of violence are often minorities and lower-income Americans. They deserve to live in safety just as much as hypocritical elitists like AOC, who decry law enforcement while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire private security for themselves.
Democrats might be willing to accept widespread crime as the new normal. Americans aren’t having it. Americans are tired of feeling unsafe in their own communities. That’s why last November even voters in deep-blue Minneapolis resoundingly rejected Democrats’ efforts to Defund the Police. The vast majority of Americans back law enforcement and support their brave and dangerous mission. Recently Fifth Avenue in New York City was filled with a sea of cops mourning police officer Jason Rivera who was killed in the line of duty while protecting others. His funeral was a poignant reminder that cops put their lives on the line for us day in and day out.
This November, Americans’ right to live in safe communities is on the ballot. Americans deserve better than Democrats who at best only pay lip service to the issue of crime and actively disparage the heroes of law enforcement. Republicans are the only ones willing to support police and the only ones who will fight to keep you and your family safe.
