A Tale of Two Cities (and Five More)

“Murders soared as police ‘pulled back’ amid 2020 protests in major cities, report finds”  is the title of today’s story on Fox News.

Declining police involvement and arrests in the wake of protests that began in the summer of 2020 have been linked to a record number of murders in the country’s major cities, according to a recent analysis….The Unites States saw more than 20,000 murders last year – approximately 4,000 more than in 2019 and the highest number of murders nationwide since 1995 – as law enforcement “pulled back,” according to the report.

Here’s the main message:

“This data confirms that in places where law enforcement saw the most resistance from community leaders and calls for less policing, we saw more homicides,” LELDF president Jason Johnson said in a prepared statement provided to Fox News. “Progressive prosecutors made it clear that making arrests for drug and weapons crimes that will go unprosecuted only exposes officers to the risk of disciplinary action, lawsuits and criminal prosecution. So, to mitigate that risk, police took a more passive approach.”

If you were a policeman in today’s climate, and you saw a furtive, late night gathering of young men in an area known for drug dealing, muggings and robberies, what do you do?  Stop the cruiser and investigate, potentially leading not only to endangering yourself but to becoming the next Al Sharpton media target?  Or steer clear of trouble and head off for a nice cup of coffee?

This is not a big mystery.

Can any serious person wonder why arrests are down and violent crime is up?

In St. Louis, 87 out of every 100,000 residents were murdered in 2020, making the city “America’s Murder Capital,” the group found.

In Portland, murders skyrocketed by 255% in the nine months from June to February…

In Chicago, data from June 2020 through February 2021 compared year-over-year shows police arrests declined 53%, while homicides jumped 65%.

In New York, June to December data for 2019 and 2020 show police arrests slid 38%, while murders were up by 58%.

Louisville saw an 87% murder spike in 2020 compared to 2019, while traffic stops dipped by 35%, the report states.

Minneapolis saw a 64% increase in murders and a 42% decrease in traffic stops.

Los Angeles reported a 51% homicide uptick and a 33% slowdown in arrests.