As Hollywood continues to jump aboard the Black Lives Matter cause to defund the police, crime has exploded in nearly every big U.S. city.
Shootings and homicides initially declined as the coronavirus lockdowns began, but since June, those numbers are reversing and have even started to soar.
According to CNN, the homicide rates in New York City have risen 23 percent in just the last few months. Chicago has suffered even higher numbers as homicides have jumped 39 percent since the end of June. Los Angeles has also experienced a 23 percent jump.
Crime analyst Jeff Asher recently assembled data from 51 cities and found that murder is up 35.7 percent over 2019.
Analysis of 51 cities with murder data through at least September shows murder up 35.7% YTD relative to 2019.
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Completing this poll grants you access to Great American Politics updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.Big cities tend to overstate national trends in crime, but the national change in murder in 2020 will be historically awful.
D cities +36.2%
R cities +35.6% pic.twitter.com/fnRsCYxkMT— Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) November 23, 2020
The Council on Criminal Justice recently reported that crime is up sharply across 21 states, especially murder. “Homicide rates increased by 42% during the summer and 34% in the fall over the summer and fall of 2019,” the group says. And the FBI recently noted that murders are up 15 percent averaged across the nation in the first half of 2020.
Many media outlets claimed that much of this crime could be laid on the coronavirus lockdowns. But others point to the defund the police movement causing police officers to withdraw from some of America’s most dangerous communities.
Indeed, with shootings up 127 percent in New York City, Democrat Councilman Robert Holden slammed the defund the police movement for endangering the city.
“Defunding the police is perhaps the worst idea in NYC government history,” Holden told Fox News. “We can’t legislate using fashionable slogans that fit on protest signs. It hurts every New Yorker. The NYPD are the gold standard for law enforcement around the world. Any issues that need to be addressed require more training, which costs money.”
Holden added that “there is definitely a correlation” between the social justice movement and the rising crime rate.
“We have had well over 1,000 shootings this year. The deadly combination of closing Rikers, getting rid of cash bail, defunding the police and putting them under the fear of going to jail if they need to apprehend a violent suspect are all part of a pro-crime atmosphere that emboldens violent criminals,” Holden said.
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