America's big cities are wrestling with an unprecedented surge in crime. No one can claim the rolling swell of crime is a shock in the wake of the nationwide clamor to defund police departments. City officials bowed to rioting mobs demands, cleaving police budgets and trimming cops on the street.
The impact was predictable. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) preliminary report shows murders and non-negligent manslaughter offenses increased 14.8% after years of decline. Aggravated assaults climbed 4.6%. Arson skyrocketed 19.2%. The reporting period covers January to June 2020.
The final FBI report for last year won't be released until this September. However, In the last three months of 2020, the crime wave evolved into a tsunami. Homicides spiraled 32.2% in cities with a population of at least one million, according to data in the FBI Quarterly Uniform Report.
After the George Floyd death, riots and looting erupted in many major cities. As the lawlessness continued night after night, weak kneed, mostly Democrat city officials surrendered to Black Lives Matter and Antifa by rushing to defund their police departments with little or no public debate.
Cities including New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Atlanta ordered deep budget cuts that impacted manpower. Departments were forced to slice payrolls and decrease police presence, which slowed response time.
Cuts ranged from $1 billion in New York City to $29 million in Oakland. The result was devastating for the most vulnerable residents of these major cities. Deadly crimes spiked in neighborhoods with mostly African-American and Hispanic majorities.
In Minneapolis, scene of the Floyd death, murders jumped 46% between December of last year and March 28 of this year. In New York City, murders shot up 11.8% as of March 21 year-over-year. Shootings spiked 40.1% in just the first quarter of this year.
Los Angeles reported a 38% increase in murders in 2020, despite the Coronavirus mandates that kept most residents sheltered in their homes and apartments. After Austin sliced its police budget by $43 million, arsons soared 73%, aggravated assaults rose 26%.
Portland, scene of some of the worst rioting, experienced a 1,600% increase in murders in just the first two months of this year. From July 2020 to February, the homicide rate escalated 270.6%. Once peaceful, laid back Portland was transformed into a war zone by anarchists.
These depressing statistics prompted an outcry from citizen groups in these cities, pressuring city councils and mayors to backtrack in the face of withering criticism. New York reinstated $92 million in its police budget, Baltimore proposed a $27 million increase after chopping $22 million in 2020.
Other cities followed suit, including Oakland, Minneapolis, Houston, San Diego and others. After being drowned out for months by the anarchists, ordinary citizens and many business said: Enough! But restoring budgets may be too late for many cities caught up in anti-police media and protests frenzy.
Police are leaving in droves in the cities that refused to back the blue. New York City Police Department resignations and retirements are up 75% from the previous year. More than 5,300 uniformed officers have left the force. When cities defund police, it's a clear signal policing is no longer a priority.
In Minneapolis, more than 200 officers left between last July and this March. That is a 49% increase from the previous year. The Police Department union blames the lack of city council support and the city's refusal to back officers during the worst of the riots.
The story is the same in other crime plagued cities. Seattle and Portland have both reported the biggest wave of police departures in recent memory. Staffing shortages are exacerbating the out-of-control rise in violent crime in these cities and others. Cutting police budgets has deadly consequences.
The head of the Police Union in Portland had harsh criticism for City Commissioner Joe Ann Hardesty, who spearheaded the defund the police movement in the city, "Roving gangs of black clad rioters do not speak for the hundreds of thousands of residents and business owners, who want a safe and clean city. Yet local politicians supported them."
Some concerned law enforcement officials are speculating the defund the police movement has a broader agenda than just addressing the law enforcement shooting of African-Americans. Former Arizona police officer Brandon Tatum, author of an upcoming book on the subject, has a plausible theory.
"I believe it's an agenda to completely destroy and dismantle local police departments so that the (federal) government can have control of law enforcement in this country and push a nationwide agenda," Tatum said in an interview.
Tatum has a point. If law enforcement is federalized, then the government in Washington can enforce mandates and restrictions that support its progressive agenda. Imagine a federal cops seizing guns from legal owners, forcing citizens to get COVID vaccines or policing public speech.
That would be a dangerous development that would infringe on Constitutional rights. However, if the Washington progressives pass laws, then what better way to force compliance than having a federal police force to do its bidding? It's a sobering thesis that should worry every American.
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