Why is America No Longer Safe?

In recent weeks, crime has become the central topic of debate among politicians and the major media. The President is responsible for this. Crime was a primary issue in his campaign and helped get him elected. His decision to deploy the national guard to augment police in Washington, DC and send troops to assist the ICE removal of illegal alien criminals in Los Angeles has been met with harsh criticism by democrats who continue to claim that crime is not a serious problem. While crime rates are lower than during the Black Lives Matter crime explosion of 2020, the 283 murders in Chicago and 186 in New York City this year represent crisis-level violence to most people. The New York Post reports that on September 1, a stolen car pulled up to a popular deli in the Bronx at 7:30 PM and two young black men jumped out and opened fire, killing one and injuring four. All of the suspects were arrested, including a 16-year-old. A week earlier, a 15-year-old repeat offender on an ankle monitor was arrested by New York police for killing a man during a botched robbery. On August 23, four young black men, including a 16-year-old, were arrested for shooting up a basketball tournament at a New York park, killing one and injuring three others , including a 17-year-old girl currently fighting for her life from a gunshot to the face. Is anyone surprised that many New Yorkers don’t feel safe?

In addition to having the most murders of any U.S. City,  Chicago is currently plagued with carjackings, often by armed teen-aged boys. A July story in CWB Chicago reports that boys as young as 14 years old have been arrested for attacking drivers to steal their cars. A Fox News report on the fatal August 22 stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a crowded Charlotte, N.C., commuter train by a habitual felon with 14 prior arrests once again demonstrates the consequences of progressive criminal justice reform policies. In response to the murder, which was captured on security video, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles told reporters that incidents like the stabbing of Zarutska should “force us to look at what we are doing across our community to address root causes. We will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health.”

She is wrong, as are the Mayors of crime-ridden Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Oakland, who are all liberal democrats. We can arrest our way out of crime, while eliminating tolerance for drug addiction, homelessness, and mentally ill nutcases. The greatest “root causes” of crime are bad parenting, the abandonment of personal responsibility, and the government’s failure to enforce real consequences for criminals. Liberal states, led by California, Illinois, and New York have been reducing the punishment for criminals for over two decades, initially for juveniles and later for adults. The prevailing narrative is that teen-aged offenders and adults who commit so-called  “low level” crimes can be persuaded with compassion and second chances to turn away from crime. This approach has failed miserably with juvenile crime today steadily approaching historic 1980s levels, and a generation of adult repeat felons who have never learned to fear the law.  Deranged criminals, like the habitual felon who stabbed Ms. Zarutska to death or the seriously disturbed transgender Robin Westman, who recently killed two children and injured 18 at a Minneapolis Catholic church, should have been receiving treatment in a secure facility rather than left on the streets.

But another major contributor to today’s crime surge is cultural.  U.S. colleges and universities have been sanctuaries for liberal activists since the 1960s. A significant percentage of graduates from these places have been trained to hate America, its Constitution, its history, and its values. This disdain dominates journalism and the arts and has major influence on politics, the judiciary, and even science. For over two decades, the American public has been repeatedly told by the national media and liberal politicians that blacks who commit crime are the victims of systemic racism and do not deserve to be punished. As a result, we have more urban crime, with most of it committed by young black men and juveniles. The fact that most of urban crime victims are other blacks and juveniles is of no importance to these messengers. Their goal seems to be to create division in order to breakdown society.

The televised tragedy of a young woman brutally murdered by a habitual criminal, repeatedly turned loose by liberal soft-on-crime policies, may hopefully be the trigger for American voters to want public safety restored.