American Crime Story

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• American cities are in the grip of a historic crime wave, with gun assaults, violent crimes like carjackings, and homicides all on the rise.
• At least 16 major U.S. cities set homicide records in 2021.
• The damage caused by abandoning public safety has gone beyond the loss of life and property – it has contributed to the breakdown of an orderly society.

America’s cities are in the grip of a historic crime wave. Homicides spiked by 30% in 2020, the largest increase in more than a century, and the trend continued last year. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, homicides were up in 2021 by 49% from 2019 and 53% from 2018.

At least 16 major U.S. cities hit homicide records in 2021. Some, like Toledo, Ohio, broke records set in 2020. Other cities broke previous highs from decades ago, like Austin, Texas, which topped a record set in 1984, and St. Paul, Minnesota, breaking a record from 1992. Philadelphia recorded an astounding 561 homicides in 2021, breaking a grim record the city had set in 1990.

At Least 16 U.S. Cities Broke Homicide Records in 2021

radical rhetoric and criminal rampages

Throughout the summer of 2020, Democratic politicians spread anti-police rhetoric across the country. They touted the nonsensical policy of “defunding the police” as a way to reduce crime in American cities. Democrat-led cities gave in to the “woke” mobs, abandoned public safety, and defunded their police departments. The Seattle City Council voted to cut the 2021 police budget by nearly $35.6 million. In Philadelphia, the council voted for a 2021 budget that slashed funding for police by $33 million. The New York City Council approved a 2021 budget that cut an astonishing $484 million from the police department’s budget.

The damage caused by abandoning public safety has gone beyond the loss of life and property – it has contributed to the breakdown of an orderly society.

In San Francisco, shoplifting soared, with mobs of criminals looting high-end stores. The city rarely prosecutes shoplifting, and criminals have adjusted accordingly. Many stores advise employees not to interfere with shoplifters so as not to risk getting hurt. The result of this permissive attitude toward property crime is hundreds of thousands of dollars of theft and businesses fleeing the city. The mayor, after initially being an outspoken supporter of defunding the police, was forced to declare a state of emergency in one crime and drug-plagued neighborhood.

In Philadelphia, residents greeted the new year with the grim news that 14 people were shot on January 1. Two of them died, including a 16-year-old. In Oakland, the Mercury News reported assaults with firearms rose 95% in 2021 compared to the average from 2015 to 2019. Shootings rose at least 102%. Carjackings rose 150%, and aggravated assaults rose about 35%.

New York City had nearly 500 carjackings in 2021, up from 132 just two years ago. New Orleans reported 281, up from 105 in 2018. Chicago reported a staggering 1,800 carjackings, “the most on record over the last 20 years,” according to CNN.

portlanders no longer feel safe

Portland, Oregon, has been at the forefront of Democrats’ defund the police debacle. In June 2020, the city council passed a budget that cut $15 million from the police bureau and eliminated 84 jobs. The budget cut eight people from the city’s Special Emergency Response Team and cut funding for school resource officers and transit police.

The result was predictable and deadly. Portland had more than 1,200 shootings in 2021, up from 400 two years earlier. The city also hit a grim new milestone of 90 homicides last year. The previous high was set in 1982, when there were 66 murders. By last November, the crime wave and near-breakdown in civil order finally led the mayor of Portland to reverse course and seek to restore $5 million in police funding, including money to hire more officers.

democrats abandon public safety

The spike in violent crime and the sharp increase in murders that began in the summer of 2020 is a direct result of Democrats’ move toward “depolicing.” Research from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that an additional 10 to 17 officers hired prevents one new homicide per year. Conversely, when cities decrease the sizes of their police forces, violent crime and homicide rates increase.

A research paper published in September 2020 found “American cities may be witnessing significant declines in some forms of policing, which in turn is producing the homicide spikes.” The paper examined why crime is increasing for specific categories, including shootings and homicides, and noted “these crime categories are particularly responsive to reductions in proactive policing.”

Attorney General Bill Barr moved swiftly in 2020 to counter the disastrous effects of depolicing and address the rise in violent crime. The Justice Department launched Operation LeGend, a surge of federal law enforcement officials assigned to work with state and local officials to fight violent crime. The program was credited with more than 6,000 arrests nationwide, including more than 450 for homicide. Officers seized more than 2,600 firearms along with millions of dollars’ worth of drugs. Unfortunately, the Biden administration abandoned Operation LeGend.

Senate Republicans have pressed for Congress to address the rise in violent crime across the country. In December 2020, Republican members of the Judiciary Committee called on Chairman Durbin to hold a full committee hearing on the rise in violent crime across the country. The request came after Republican members of the committee were prohibited from participating virtually in a field hearing that focused on crime in Chicago. Senator Grassley reiterated that call last month. While the committee did hold a hearing on carjackings, Democrats on the committee still have not scheduled a full committee hearing on the overall rise in violent crime in America.