President Biden's Speech on Rising Crime Rates

President Biden spoke the other day on the rising crime and homicide rates in America’s cities. His advisors have been watching the polls which show the President underperforming on crime and the Border. Thus Vice President Harris also visited the Border, sorta. The good news about his lackluster crime speech is that he quickly breezed through the usual Obama-Biden pablum of gun control, AR-15’s and semi-automatic weapons. He did that a few weeks ago. His speech went downhill from the desultory call for gun control. He had two major proposals for attacking the crime problem. His delivery was pretty diffident. First he wants to go after the gun sellers who illegally sells guns. He calls them “merchants of death.” He warned “We will find you.” An estimated 100,000 illegal guns are on the streets of New York. The purchasers do not go through background checks. The sellers are hardly quivering in their shoes. The second proposal was to allow cities and state receiving the unrestricted Covid funds to use some of the $350 million to hire more police. He said: “This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement in our communities.” Tell that to the police in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and soon Oakland, California. The New Oakland City budget, which does into effect tomorrow, diverts $18 million from the police budget “to invest in violence prevention and other programs to deter juveniles from turning to crime.” Oakland has seen 65 homicides so far this year, up 90% from last year. Defunded, defamed, and demonized, Police forces are shrinking thought budget cuts, accelerated retirements and resignations in those cities. The police also know in cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, Louisville, Philadelphia, and Portland (Multnomah County) that prosecutors are eager to prosecute them, but not looters and rioters, including those who attack police officers. Let’s look at the statistics. Atlanta is about 400 officers short of the authorized figure. The city had 157 homicides in 2020, up from 99 in 2019. Only 73, less than 50%, resulted in arrest6s. Homicides in Chicago rose 53% from 506 in 2019 to 780 in 2020. Chicago witnessed 18 homicides in one night. Homicides were up another 33% and shootings 40% in the first three months of 2021. The Chicago Police Department has shrunk by 3%. New York City’s homicides jumped 45% from 2019 to 2020, 319 to 464.43% in the same period, an increase of 131 homicides. 299 victims have been shot through late June this year, a 54% increase from last year. Homicides in April 2021 totaled 44, up 6 from the previous year. 132 homicides occurred in the first four months of 2021, up 20 (17.9%) from 2020. Shooting interests though jumped to 149 from 56, 166.1%, the previous year. Portland during the first five months of 2020 recorded 6 homicides. It recorded 38 in the same period this year. Homicides in 2020 jumped 82% from 2019 to 2020, from 29 to 53. Portland Police tallied 450 shootings this year from January through May, compared to 200 last year.42 homicides so far this year are on pace to surpass the record year of 1987 with 70 homicides. 115 officers resigned or retired in 2021. They know they’re not wanted by the public officials Los Angeles saw homicides rise 36% from 67 to 91 in the first three months of 2021. Minneapolis, the pioneer in defunding the police, witnessed homicides jumping 72% in 2020 (46 to 76) as the depleted police department saw 100 officers leaving the force in 2020. The city even let the mob burn down a police station in 2020 during the George Floyd riots. New York City touted a billion dollar budget cut for the police. New York City disbanded the 600 member plains clothes anti-crime unit, whose Mission was to ferret out guns. How has that worker out with two shootings in the past month in Times Square during daylight? Philadelphia under its Soros District Attorney Larry Kraemer saw a 30 year high in homicides in 2020 to 498. Over half remain unsolved. Homicide victims were up 38% in 2020 and shooting victims up 39% to 815. Philadelphia has seen 250 homicides as of mid-June this year. 15 shootings occurred one weekend in Philly. Seattle recorded 28 murders in 2019. More were shot in the first 6 months of 2020, a 30 year high for the period. Seattle lost 180 officers in 2020 with 66 more so far this year. The thugs are emboldened -not scared. One shooting occurred in Atlanta as a police car sat outside the victim’s residence. Then there’s the prosecutors who don’t prosecute “low level” crimes, such as rioting and looting. 1108 criminal cases were referred to the Multnomah County District Attorney from May 29, 2020 to June 11, 2021. He dropped 891 of those cases. Many of those arrested in the 100+ protests/riots were back rioting the next night. So too with district attorneys in Manhattan and the Bronx. Manhattan’s DA Cyrus Vance, jr. said his office was overwhelmed by Covid. Yet he is devoting a large number of his staff to preparing a criminal tax fraud against the Trump Organization and perhaps President Trump. It’s all political. Then we have states with zero bail, such as New York, where arrestees are released almost as soon as they are booked – to commit more crimes. We also have the prosecutors who prosecute police officers, especially in Philadelphia and Portland. The victims are mostly in the inner cities, with some gang related. However, the shootings spill out of the poor neighborhoods. Many of the shooting victims are children and teenagers, mothers with their children, a father in Times Square shot on June 27 in from of his family at 5:30PM outsidethe Times Square Marriott Hotel. The city is initiating a $30 million advertising campaign to attract tourists back to the City. They should spend that money on policing. Police are dispirited. Those remaining on the force in cities that defund the police and don’t prosecute arrestees have backed off from making arrests. President Biden’s proposals do nothing to stop the carnage in America’s cities. He’s scared of offending the progressive wing of his party. He will not even speak out against the specific cities which have defunded the police – not one mayor – not one council member. Let us quote Clara Peller on President Biden’s crime proposals: “Where’s the beef?”