{"id":3075,"date":"2021-03-07T12:47:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075"},"modified":"2021-03-07T18:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T02:36:50","slug":"joe-biden-and-his-critical-race-theory-allies-versus-the-reality-of-surging-violent-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article<\/a> about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:\u00a0 The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year\u00a0 —\u00a0 a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies\u00a0 —\u00a0 failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n

American liberalism is in a strong position to dominate cultural and political life in the United States for the near future, with Joe Biden in the White House and the Democratic Party in control of both houses of Congress. The cultural and media elites are, for now, united in their conviction that they have saved democracy and that the future is theirs. And yet, a serious challenge to this new liberal ascendancy could be coming, one similar in kind to the circumstances that knocked liberalism back on its heels in the 1960s\u2014its inability to address or mitigate an increase in crime, particularly violent crime, and arrest the decline of civic order. In their eagerness to remake the criminal-justice system, defund police, and abolish prisons, today\u2019s liberal leaders and activists appear to have forgotten the lessons of a previous era\u2014and like their 1960s forebearers, prefer to denounce opponents of their agenda and forestall the difficult conversations about tradeoffs rather than confront the very real anxieties and fears many Americans are expressing about safety and disorder….<\/p>\n

Street crime\u201d [in the Sixties, Seventies and much of the Eighties] became not just a terrifying reality for urban dwellers in particular but a national political issue\u2014a rallying cry for the right and the subject of rationalization by the left that provided yet another justification for expanding federal spending on social welfare. Culturally, the liberal elite doubled down on its defense of the accused and even glamorized violence and criminal behavior\u2014a tendency that had grown so pronounced that by 1970, Tom Wolfe memorably was skewering it as \u201cradical chic\u201d in his portrait of the fundraiser Leonard Bernstein had hosted for the Black Panthers in his lavish New York City penthouse apartment.<\/p>\n

For most Americans, the harsh realities of a decades-long crime wave could not be wished away over canap\u00e9s. The homicide rate doubled between 1960 and 1980, and in general, all felonious crime, such as rape, assault, robbery, and theft, rose steadily. By the 1980s, in cities where crack (which radically lowered the financial cost of getting an aggressive high from cocaine) dominated the drug trade, the breakdown of social order played out daily with often deadly consequences. The government\u2019s responsibility to keep its citizens safe was properly viewed as a promise betrayed\u2014and Democrats at the local and national level paid the price at the polls for many years for their unwillingness to confront the issue. It wasn\u2019t merely scared white folk who were concerned about rising crime; people of color who lived in poor neighborhoods were far more likely to be the victims of crime than anxious suburbanites and had long expressed concerns for their safety. As civil-rights leader A. Philip Randolph said in 1964, \u201cwhile there may be law and order without freedom, there can be no freedom without law and order.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After a thorough examination of the radical extent of present CRT and the anti-police, anti-incarceration drumbeat that occupies leftist (and some libertarian) discussions\u00a0 —\u00a0 an examination you should read in full\u00a0 —\u00a0 the article concludes:<\/p>\n

Biden wants credit for the results of decades of tough-on-crime policies (which he supported then) even as he denounces those same policies now as bulwarks of \u201csystemic racism\u201d and \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d In announcing a set of executive orders during his first weeks in office that invoked Critical Race Theory jargon, the new president described the challenge as an existential one. \u201cWe\u2019re in a battle for the soul of this nation,\u201d he said, \u201cand the truth is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to exist.\u201d He went on to promise that his administration would \u201cmake strikes to end systemic racism, and every branch of the White House and the federal government will be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The souls of Critical Race Theory folks might be troubled by \u201csystemic racism\u201d claims, but everyday Americans will be, and should be, far more bothered by imminent threats to their security and property. Biden has said next to nothing about those concerns since winning the election. Instead, he has embraced certain pet causes of the decarceration crowd, such as standing in opposition to privately owned prisons. And his adoption of Critical Race Theory rhetoric comes at a time when data suggest we are at risk of being swamped by a new wave of violent crime, not the fantastical cessation of criminal behavior envisioned by progressive activists [by, for example, replacing police patrols with social worker visits]. If Joe Biden continues to respond to the grim reality of rising crime with factitious and false rhetoric about why we need less law enforcement, the results may prove to be not only a disaster for the nation as a whole, but political suicide for his presidency and his party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:\u00a0 The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year\u00a0 —\u00a0 a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia. The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies\u00a0 —\u00a0 failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\nJoe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:\u00a0 The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year\u00a0 —\u00a0 a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia. The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies\u00a0 —\u00a0 failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-07T20:47:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-08T02:36:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075\",\"name\":\"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-07T20:47:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-08T02:36:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime & Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\",\"name\":\"Bill Otis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences","og_description":"Commentary Magazine has a long and wonderfully wide-ranging article about two present-day phenomena on a collision course:\u00a0 The Critical Race Theory alliances that have captured much of President Biden’s attention and seem to be shaping his criminal justice policies; and the massive (indeed, unprecedented) surge in violent crime we have seen unfolding for more than a year\u00a0 —\u00a0 a surge most pronounced in the cities friendliest to CRT and “progressive prosecutors,” e.g., Minneapolis and Philadelphia. The basic question the article presents is whether Biden has forgotten his past support for sober criminal justice policies and the life-saving success he (and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) had with them, and whether, if so, we are headed back to the bloody failures of the Sixties and Seventies\u00a0 —\u00a0 failures that exact a disproportionately high toll on minority communities.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075","og_site_name":"Crime & Consequences","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/","article_published_time":"2021-03-07T20:47:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-08T02:36:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Bill Otis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bill Otis","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075","name":"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime - Crime & Consequences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-07T20:47:12+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-08T02:36:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=3075#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Joe Biden and His Critical Race Theory Allies Versus the Reality of Surging Violent Crime"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/","name":"Crime & Consequences","description":"Crime and criminal law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e","name":"Bill Otis","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3079,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}