(06-30-2021 05:53 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  Lori Lightfoot Claims ‘Racism And Sexism’ Driving ‘About 99%’ Of Criticism Over Chicago Crime Wave

Quote:Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed, on Tuesday night, that the intense criticism, leveled at her office over Chicago’s spiking gun violence, is the result of “racism and sexism” and not her lack of leadership.

“The mayor made the comment during an interview on [Chicago’s PBS affiliate, WTTW] after being asked about questions people have raised over temperament and how she reacts to criticism. The mayor has been known to be tough on staff and confrontational with critics, contributing to significant staff turnover,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

WTTW asked Lightfoot how much of the criticism she’s received over the skyrocketing crime rate has been the result of racism and sexism and she quickly answered, “about 99%.”

“Look at my predecessors. Did people say that Rich Daley held tea sessions with people that he (disagreed with)? Rahm Emanuel was a polite guy who was a uniter? No,” Lightfoot told the network. “Women and people of color are always held to a different standard. I understand that, I’ve known that my whole life.”

Lightfoot also claimed crime is down — an assertion she’s repeated several times this week, though it does not appear the statistics line up with her own assessment.

The Daily Wire’s Ben Johnson noted Wednesday that it appears crime is actually up in the city.

Lightfoot claimed that “shootings year over year are down.” In fact, shootings have surged 12% compared to the same time last year — and a whopping 59% compared to this time in 2019.

Murders, too, have increased. Chicago has had 326 murders so far in 2021, compared to 323 during the same period in 2020 and 241 in 2019, a 35% rise. The “(h)omicide rate among (b)lacks is 9 times higher than the homicide rate among non-(b)lacks,” reported the city’s Department of Public Health on June 15.

Criminal sexual assaults, such as rape, are also up 22% since last year.

Chicago is facing its highest rate of gun violence since 2016 when the city was mired in a gang war.

Lightfoot recently made eradicating systemic racism in Chicago a landmark issue of her mayoral tenure. She declared “racism” a “public health crisis,” and, to mark the mid-point of her first term as mayor, limited interviews to only female journalists and reporters of color — a plan that quickly got Lightfoot sued.

Racism, Lightfoot said in early June, is the driving force behind Chicago’s crime. The Daily Wire reported that Lightfoot “blamed ‘systemic racism’ for the hardships minority residents face in the city, pledging to use millions of dollars in grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for combatting alleged systemic racism, which she called a ‘public health crisis.'”

Chicago aldermen, who say that Lightfoot has abrogated her duty to protect Chicago residents, countered that gangs are responsible for Chicago’s crime — not racism.

“Generational gang life isn’t just something that’s encouraged. It’s almost revered in some neighborhoods,” Alderman Raymond Lopez — one of Lightfoot’s chief rivals — told the Washington Examiner. “If you really want to get to what is at the heart of a lot of this, it is gangs, and it is the borderline collapse of the family unit in many of our neighborhoods … [Lightfoot] has avoided calling out gangs in our community as a source of violence in our city.”

Lori Lightfoot Said Chicago’s Crime is Falling. Here’s What the Numbers Say

Quote:Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) berated a journalist who questioned her city’s rising crime rate and claimed that the crime rate is actually falling. Unfortunately, her city’s official crime statistics show a year-on-year increase in violent crime — and a massive spike since she took office two years ago.

What Lori Lightfoot Said About Chicago’s Crime Rate:

Mayor Lightfoot attempted to downplay Chicago’s explosive violent crime rate during a press conference last Friday. “Do you owe an apology to the victims of violent crime, the thousands of unsolved shootings and murders and random stabbings in the downtown, on the South side, on the North side, on the West side? Do you owe these people any apology?” asked Newsmax reporter William Kelly.

“Sir, I ask you to get your facts right,” Lightfoot replied. “Crime is not out of control in our city. In fact, crime is on the decline. All of our major indices show a decline in crime, and our homicides and our shootings year over year are down. That’s a fact, Sir.”

When Kelly tried to ask a follow-up question, Lightfoot responded, “Sir, I was polite and allowed you to spew your rhetoric, which is offensive to me and others, but I’m trying to be polite and professional and answer your question. But if you want to write your own narrative, and irrelevant to what I’m gonna say and what the facts are, then we’ll just move on to the next reporter.”

What the Facts Say About Chicago’s Crime Rate:

Regrettably for her city’s residents, Lightfoot lied about Chicago’s crime rate. Murders, shootings, and criminal sexual assaults in Chicago have risen sharply on Lightfoot’s watch, according to statistics released by the Chicago Police Department.

For instance, Lightfoot claimed that “shootings year over year are down.” In fact, shootings have surged 12% compared to the same time last year — and a whopping 59% compared to this time in 2019.

Murders, too, have increased. Chicago has had 326 murders so far in 2021, compared to 323 during the same period in 2020 and 241 in 2019, a 35% rise. The “[h]omicide rate among [b]lacks is 9 times higher than the homicide rate among non-[b]lacks,” reported the city’s Department of Public Health on June 15.

Criminal sexual assaults, such as rape, are also up 22% since last year.

Chicago’s violent crime explosion tracks almost perfectly with the mayoral tenure of Lori Lightfoot, who took office on May 20, 2019, although the city’s crime rate had been abysmal long before she took office.

How Lori Lightfoot has Responded to Chicago’s Worsening Crime Rate:

Critics say that Mayor Lightfoot’s approach to crime has exacerbated the problem. The Democrat proposed cutting the by $59 million in last October’s budget, in part by leaving hundreds of vacant police jobs unfilled.

More recently, Lightfoot blamed the city’s crime surge on legal gun sales and demanded nationwide gun control legislation. “Cities individually cannot tackle this problem. We just cannot,” said Lightfoot earlier this month. “In Chicago, we’ve done absolutely everything possible, and we need help from the federal government.”

Crime is by far the most pressing issue facing Chicagoans, according to a WGN-TV/Emerson College poll. Meanwhile, Lightfoot has been consumed with such ephemeral causes as refusing to grant interviews to white reporters and writing an email demanding that staffers give her “office time” which many readers have compared to “The Shining.”

Nationally, observers say that rising crime rates in cities led by Democrats may fuel a Republican resurgence during the 2022 midterms. The White House has begun spinning that Republicans defunded the police by voting against President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

The verdict: Mayor Lori Lightfoot told Kelly, “I’m trying to be polite and professional and answer your question.” Unfortunately, she didn’t answer his question truthfully.

Yes crime is down, Two days ago 8 people got shot and killed. Yesterday only 5 people died under the same circumstances.

And if you look at last year. On June 29th 2020 11 people were shot and killed, on June 29 this year it was the previously mentioned 5. CRIME IS DOWN!

See Crime is down!

Police Group: Attacks on Police Up 91% Since Last Year

Quote:The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced on Twitter Thursday that attacks on police have risen drastically in the past year.

The group declared men and women law enforcement officers have seen a surge in ambush-style attacks, rising 91 percent from 2020.

So far this year, the FOP says there have been 150 officers shot, along with 28 officers killed by gunfire. The group also acknowledged there have been 51 officers shot in 50 ambush-style attacks just this year.

In all of 2020, they said there were “60 law enforcement officers were shot in 48 separate ambushes, and 12 died as a result of being ambushed.” That data was published in the 2020 Year-End Summary of Law Enforcement Officers Shot in the Line of Duty.

The published report defined ambush-style attacks as those “carried out with an element of surprise and intended to deprive officers of the ability to defend against the attack.”

In a study done by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute, they found that from April 2020 to April 2021, “retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year.” Those numbers were compared to the previous 12 months.

Recently the FOP also blasted politicians and the media for gaslighting the public with anti-police rhetoric. “As Violent Crime SURGES across American,” the FOP tweeted, “some politicians and some in the media are gaslighting the public into thinking the Police are the Problem…” They include a graphic that showed statistics of the crime surging in major cities.

Chicago Police Tout Major Progress On Crime Hours Before City’s Latest Mass Shooting

Quote:The Chicago Police Department sent a press release touting the city’s progress on crime just hours before the Chicago suffered its latest mass shooting — an incident that left a one-month-old baby wounded.

CWB Chicago reports that CPD announced, Thursday, that the city saw a year-over-year decline in the number of murders and a year-over-year decline in the number of shootings.

“For June 2021, Chicago experienced 78 murders, down 20% compared to the 98 murders in June of 2020. Year to date there have been six fewer murders in 2021 compared to last year,” the department crowed. “The number of shooting incidents this month dropped 13% over June 2020, as well as 41 fewer shooting victims.”

As CWB noted, the statistics are somewhat misleading, given that June 2020 was a record breaking year for murders in the Windy City.

“June 2020 recorded more murders than any other June in the history of the modern Chicago Police Department,” the outlet said. “And, after victims who are still clinging to life succumb to their wounds, last month will likely rank among the five worst Junes in history.”

According to statistics CWB Chicago obtained from the Chicago Police Department directly, Chicago has not had this many murders since the early 1990s, when gang violence in the city was at a high.

CPD’s statistics on the number of murders also may be off. According to the Chicago Tribune’s tracking site, there have been 294 homicides in the city is far this year — 21 more than at this point in 2020. CPD only counts “murders,” but it’s not clear how they define the term, given that many suspects in June homicides are still at large, and the Cook County prosecutors’ office may have yet to file charges in some cases where an incident resulted in an arrest.

The release also touts a decline in carjackings since January, one of the highest months on record for carjackings in Chicago. Year over year, carjackings are actually up 7%.

Regardless of CPD’s claims, hours later, seven people, including a one-month-old baby girl, were wounded in a mass shooting on the city’s south side — the third such mass shooting in just under two weeks, and the 24th such mass shooting this year.

“A 1-month-old girl and six other people were hit by gunfire in Englewood Thursday night when three gunmen jumped from a black Jeep Cherokee and began firing up and down the street,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. ‘The attack came just days after two mass shootings killed two women and injured 15 other people in Chicago. At least 24 shootings across the city this year have wounded four or more people, according to a Sun-Times analysis.”

The Englewood attack was captured on a video, which shows three gunman exiting an idling Jeep. The three men shot “in several directions” according to police, then jumped back into the vehicle and sped away.

“The baby was shot in the head and taken in critical condition to St. Bernard Hospital, then transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to police and a Chicago Fire Department spokesman,” the Sun-Times noted, adding that, according to relatives, the baby’s condition is improving.

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‘I Believe in Abolishing Police’: MSNBC Host Offers Full Support To Defund The Police Movement

Quote:While the Democratic Party has attempted to distance itself from its advocacy of defunding the police, an MSNBC host said on Wednesday that he supports “abolishing the police” and “getting rid” of law enforcement “entirely.” He also asserted without evidence that officers deliberately “prey” on the same black families “over and over and over.”

“I have always made it abundantly clear I believe in abolishing police, getting rid of it entirely, starting from the beginning. We have done that before. We have done it with the Department of War,” said Jason Johnson, the guest host of “The Beat with Ari Melber.”

It was not the first time that Johnson, a professor of journalism at Morgan State University and frequent MSNBC contributor, had proposed eradicating the police force as the anchor of an MSNBC show. While filling in for Melber on June 24, Johnson affirmed, “I’m on the abolish the police side” of the debate, as contrasted with those who merely wish to “reform” the system.

His comments could hardly have come at a less opportune time for Democrats, who have desperately tried to deflect criticism over the nation’s rising crime rate, which followed a year of police funding reductions in Democrat-controlled cities.

A meager 18% of Americans support the movement to defund the police, according to an Ipsos/USA TODAY poll released in March. The survey also found only 28% of black Americans and 34% of Democrats wish to “Defund the Police.” Abolishing the police likely attracts lower support yet.

As a result, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki and other Democrats have accused Republicans of defunding the police, a claim The Washington Post’s fact-checker rated “Three Pinocchios.” Johnson’s comments make that fallacious assertion even less tenable.

Johnson and his guest continued their character assassination against police officers by claiming that U.S. law enforcement has been designed to repeatedly victimize the same innocent black families.

Johnson’s latest remarks came while reporting that the uncle of Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the death of George Floyd, tragically died after getting into a car accident with a police officer. “George Floyd’s girlfriend used to teach Daunte Wright,” he said. “The police seem to prey on the same black people over, and over, and over again.”

His guest, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, agreed, saying, “The lesson the nation needs to learn in this moment is that the system is working precisely as it was designed.” The alleged choice of law enforcement officers “to revisit the same black families, black people, and black communities is not happenstance. It’s not an accident. This is intentional. This is a choice.”

“What we need to understand is that this system, this system that continues to visit and revisit black people with intention, is working precisely and exactly as it was designed,” she concluded.

“Exactly, as always planned,” agreed Johnson, ending the show.

Neither one explained how the “system” supposedly arranged the automobile accident, which occurred while officers were pursuing an active carjacker.

But both guests have a history of spreading misinformation about the police. In April, Johnson told “The 11th Hour” host Brian Williams, “I’m just as likely to get shot by that cop as I am with a potential intruder. That’s just the reality. That’s the reality of it that I live with every day.”

Late last month Brittany Packnett Cunningham, whom former President Barack Obama appointed to his Task Force on 21st Century Policing, told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle that “this rising crime … is actually the fault of the police.”

San Francisco D.A.’s Aide Likens Those Concerned With City’s ‘Crime Surge’ To KKK Members, Locks Twitter Account

Quote:A top aide for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin locked her Twitter account earlier this week after appearing to mock a constituent who had expressed concerns about crime in the city.

Kate Chatfield, Boudin’s senior director for legislation and policy, reportedly set her account to private mode “hours after comparing political opponents to ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ a highly controversial 1915 film that depicts Ku Klux Klan members as heroes,” according to SFGate.

Chatfield had responded to a tweet posted last weekend from Michelle Tandler, who describes herself as a San Francisco native and moderate Democrat. SFGate reported that Tandler “has been vocal on Twitter in her criticisms of Boudin,” known as one of the most progressive prosecutors in the country and currently the target of a recall campaign.

Tandler tweeted: “Anecdotally, every single one of my friends right now is considering leaving SF (and frankly, myself included). The biggest driver is no longer cost of living. It’s crime. My friends are scared for their children, and their husbands are scared for their wives…”

Chatfield quote-tweeted a screenshot of Tandler’s post with the caption, “‘Husbands are scared for their wives’—your reminder that the ‘crime surge’ crowd shares the same ideology as The Birth of a Nation.” The post also linked to a Wikipedia article that claimed the film portrayed the KKK “as a heroic force, necessary to preserve American values, protect the women, and maintain white supremacy.”

More details from SFGate:

In “The Birth of a Nation,” male KKK members are celebrated for “defending” white women against racist caricatures of African Americans.

Chatfield was heavily criticized for comparing those concerned with rising homicide and burglary rates to KKK members. (Crime statistics show that overall, violent crime has fallen under Boudin, but homicides and burglaries have increased.)…

Boudin’s office declined to comment on the contents of the tweet, stating that Chatfield acted in a personal capacity and not as a representative of the district attorney’s office.

Tandler said Chatfield’s response was her “first time being trolled by a San Francisco public official,” adding, “Guess something I’m saying is hitting a nerve.”

Several progressives defended Chatfield, including Dr. Melina Abdullah, the lead organizer of Black Lives Matter’s Los Angeles chapter. She said recall efforts against reform-minded prosecutors like Boudin and L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón “are actually thinly-veiled attempts to maintain a violently racist system that steals Black life and destroys Black community.”

“Let’s be clear,” Abdullah tweeted on Wednesday. “Language from white people about the need for husbands to protect their wives from crime is code language that has justified police brutality, mass incarceration, and the killing of Black people in this country for centuries.”

“Black people & their allies hear exactly what is being threatened – & to whom – when white people say ‘husbands are scared for their wives,’” she continued. “We know exactly what is meant by this language. Our bodies & our communities have borne the scars of this language for centuries.”

Democrat Lauren Underwood Blames Police Officer Retirements on Low Morale

Quote:Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Lauren Underwood (IL), on Thursday, blamed the droves of police officers leaving the force on the low morale and leadership within the department instead of Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric.

Underwood joined Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to talk about the rise of crime and the policing in Chicago when she was asked about police officers feeling public officials do not “have their backs” and whether that is the reason for the growing number of police officers leaving the force.

The congresswoman, forgetting about the rhetoric coming from within her own party, said the reason for police officers leaving is due to the lack of morale and leadership in the department. She said, “It’s not about politicians being attacked.” She added that she rejects the claims that “This is not somehow that the United States Congress has been disparaging or something like that.”

Underwood also said the real issue is around “policing morale.”

She continued to say the problem stems from “their inability to recruit good officers” and the law enforcement’s “image around the country is one that it will take some deep reflection within the leadership of these law enforcement agencies to try and figure out how they can help recast this image of law enforcement.”

Watch:





The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced recently that attacks on police had risen drastically in the past year, and anti-police rhetoric has been high since last year. According to the group, which is the largest police union in the nation, men and women law enforcement officers saw a surge in ambush-style attacks, rising 91 percent from 2020.

A study done by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute, found that from April 2020 to 2021, the “retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year.” The numbers were compared to the previous 12 months.

In the past weeks, the group has also blasted politicians and the media or helping fuel the anti-police rhetoric. “As Violent Crime SURGES across America,” the FOP tweeted, “some politicians and some in the media are gaslighting the public into thinking the Police are the Problem…” They included a graphic that shows statistics of the crime surging in major cities.

Members of the Democrat Party in Congress have been prominent voices calling for police to be abolished, defunded, and dismantled. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are just some of the members who have called for these efforts.

More so, some members in Underwood’s party, like Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), have acted like no one has been calling for these efforts. Recently when asked, Schrader said, “no one” in his party is calling for these efforts.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Spokesman Mike Berg said, “Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric is causing police around the country to leave the force. Lauren Underwood should take responsibility instead of blaming the officers who keep us safe.”

Underwood in 2020 barely won reelection in her district and is considered one of the crucial seats for the Democrats to hold onto in the midterm elections to keep control of the House.

San Francisco: Half of People Released Before Trial Committed Crimes

Quote:Half of arrestees released in San Francisco while awaiting trial went on to commit crimes — while one out of six committed violent crimes, according to a new four-year study by the California Policy Lab of UC Berkeley and UCLA.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Roughly half of people charged with crimes and released from jail before their trials in San Francisco in recent years failed to show up for court, and a similar share were accused of committing a new crime while free, a new study found.

More than 1 in 6 defendants allegedly committed a new violent offense, according to the findings from May 2016 to December 2019 published by the California Policy Lab, based at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

…

The data doesn’t include many of the lowest risk defendants who get a citation reminding them to show up at court and are released immediately. Numbers could also be driven in part by homelessness and addiction that can fuel crimes and hinder people from showing up for court. One in three people in San Francisco jails were unhoused and nearly 3 out of 4 had a history of substance use in recent counts.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who is currently facing a recall effort over his radical criminal justice reforms, was San Francisco District Attorney for almost all of the period covered in the study.

San Francisco ended cash bail for all criminal cases last February under new, even more radical District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and the California Supreme Court ended it in the state this past March for all defendants who cannot afford it. However, voters last November rejected a referendum, Proposition 25, 55% to 44%, that would have ended cash bail entirely in the state.

Austin, TX Defunded Police, Police Chief: ‘Crisis,’ Homicide Rate ‘We’ve Never Really Seen Here Before’

Quote:The interim police chief of Austin, Texas, declared that his department is in the midst of a what he called “dire” situation that was a “crisis” due to the defunding efforts that denuded the department’s coffers of $150 million.

“Last summer, the Austin City Council voted to defund the police department by $150 million, which resulted in canceling multiple cadet classes and disbanding multiple units responsible for responding to DWIs, domestic violence calls, stalking, and criminal interdiction,” The Center Square noted.

Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon revealed that the response times to 911 calls have slowed to 20-30 minutes on average, adding that the homicide rate has reached numbers “we’ve never really seen here before.” Chacon added that he has contacted “each council member to explain the dire situation we are in. And I’m going to call it a crisis, because that’s what it is, and they all get it.”

Chacon delineated how responses to “P0” calls, which comprise shootings, stabbings, rape, and domestic violence in progress, have averaged nine minutes and two seconds while “P1” calls, in which the assailant is still in the area, have averaged 10 minutes and 41 seconds, and both of those average response times might be too late for the victims. He attributed the slower response times to an understaffed force, as 15-20 officers have left the force each month; he contended that the current number of employees is “not sustainable.”

“The department is projecting 235 vacancies by May 2022, and 340 vacancies by May 2023.” The Center Square noted.

Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly agreed with Chacon that the situation is critical, telling KXAN. “We need to have more police officers in order to get to scenes quicker.”

After the Austin City Council voted to defund the police in August 2020, theTexas Municipal Police Association, the largest law enforcement association in Texas, took out billboards reading, “Warning! Austin Police Defunded. Enter At Your Own Risk!”





The advocacy group Save Austin Now has filed a petition for a public safety law that would require two police officers per 1,000 citizens. The group states on its website:

Austin doesn’t feel as safe recently. Because it isn’t. We’ve seen a series of city policy decisions over the last 2 years that have led to a surge in both violent crime and property crime against Austinites. A 300% increase in murders this year. A double-digit increase in property crimes such as burglaries and carjackings. And a massive increase in reports of “soft crimes” that make us uncomfortable, especially us women. This isn’t the Austin we know and love, and it doesn’t have to be.

There is much work to be done, and our petition to restore safety to Austin is a critical first step. This citizen’s petition, if passed, will ensure that the city council and our police are held to account for public safety with an elected, director of police oversight; it will ensure that we have adequate police staffing and public safety funds cannot be chopped without Austinites’ input; it will ensure that officers receive double the training; it will ensure that our police officers are rewarded for committing to diversity. Public safety is nonpartisan but it is the most important thing we do together, as citizens.

D.C. Police Chief Goes Nuts on Woke Leadership Killing His City

Quote:Yesterday, the rising violent crime rates hit close to home for rich, affluent liberals in Washington D.C. with a shooting that took place on 14th St. NW, interrupting numerous overpriced dinners. That followed on the heels of a high-profile shooting in Navy Yard, outside the Washington Nationals baseball stadium.

Ignore the source of the video, though, I will say that it’s ironic that Acosta showed none of this care when cities were turned into warzones last summer. Now that the violence might affect him, he’s suddenly concerned.

The recent spate of shootings in the nation’s capital that has gained the attention of the press has led to questions being asked of the police chief in the city. Were his officers not doing their jobs? Is there something more he can do?

He was having none of those insinuations. Instead, he placed blame exactly where it belongs, going after the woke notion that it’s “justice” to let criminals back out onto the street and to not aggressively prosecute those that commit crimes, including those that possess and use illegal weapons.

This has been obvious from the beginning. Nothing has substantively changed in regards to the proliferation of firearms. Rather, what has changed are activist blue-city Democrats, both within city hall and the prosecutor’s office, that have pushed for so-called “bail reform” that has let violent criminals back onto the streets. Further, in many cases, probation and other low-punishment deals are being struck instead of actually putting violent criminals behind bars for an extended period of time.

That has led to the predictable result of violent crime rapidly accelerating across America’s major cities. As an aside, perhaps no one has more blood on their hands than George Soros, who bankrolled many of the woke prosecutors who now hold positions of power in their cities.

Of course, not unexpectedly, the police chief blames guns as well, but it is not the guns committing shootings. Rather, it is criminals who possess illegal weapons, many of which have previous arrests but are let back out onto the street. There are lots of guns in the rural South, for example. There aren’t a lot of shootings. Ultimately, criminals will get weapons (as the United Kingdom’s surge of stabbings has shown). The question is whether they will be allowed to use them or if the laws will be enforced.

Want to stop the rise in violent crime? Arrest the people who commit those crimes and put them in jail. It’s really not that difficult. It’s what the country did for several decades, leading to the most dramatic drop in violent crime in the nation’s modern history. Throughout that time, gun ownership actually increased dramatically showing that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime. Rather, it is all about whether you aggressively enforce the laws or not.

You can expect all of this to fall on deaf ears, though. The woke are far too ingrained in the power structures of these Democrat areas, and the last thing they are going to do is admit they are part of the problem. Instead, we’ll get more virtue signaling about gun control (when current laws aren’t even being enforced) and allegations that the police are the real problem.