For anyone who has paid attention to the news in the last 25 years, you have learned a few immutable truths. One of them has been that liberal policies on crime have only made leftist cities less safe. No matter how many times conservatives have tried to save these cities, their residents keep voting for the left and then wondering where it all went wrong.
Places like New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles have seen murders drop as other crimes rise. New Orleans and San Francisco found robberies surging since 2021. No matter how they look at it, the decision to push putting people back into the community as they await trial, or even as a way to keep people out of jail by pleading them out or dropping charges, has not worked out like they said it would.
With George Soros serving as an inspiration for their work, many prosecutors are electing to decline or significantly reduce charges, and it just keeps these criminals back in the community. If they suffer no consequences, they learn no lessons. With the way the prison systems are, they gain a whole new level of knowledge while inside, so many still come out to be criminals, just better ones now. This has inspired prosecutors to try new tactics, and they have failed miserably.
Conveniently enough, these same cities often featured huge cuts to police funding due to the “defund the police” movement and huge protests across their cities for various issues.
NYC was one of the biggest changes on the list. Murder complaints have dropped much further than normal, but rapes, robberies, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny auto complaints have skyrocketed. These policies are only emboldening criminals. With criminals unafraid of anything but a ticket, they can confront the complainant in less than 24 hours in most cases. This means charges getting dropped or being forced to flee.
As Manhattan Institute Fellow Hannah Meyers explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation(DCNF) in January, “policing, prosecution and incarceration” drops are a huge factor in the big crime spikes. “Drops in arrests have been spurred by, among other things, policies that dissuade officers from engaging suspects, such as NYC’s diaphragm law. This increases the potential risk to cops of either physical injury or of professional, legal, and reputational consequences from grappling with suspects.”
Chicago’s Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx took office in 2016, and since then, homicides increased for the first time since the decline that followed the 1990s. Specifically, Murder, criminal sexual assault, and aggravated battery went down for Chicago in 2022. When combined with robbery, burglary, and theft, the overall stats have risen significantly. This is a sign of crime shifting away from death and more towards a “safer” criminal alternative.
Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Cully Stimson explained to DCNF, “In 2015, there were 493 homicides, but in 2016 when she enacted her hands-off, pro-criminal approach, homicides spiked to 778 her first year, and through 2021 have averaged 680 per year.” With 687 for 2022, the trend has continued. Yet, the people of the city won’t wake up and smell the coffee.
It’s only getting worse. As illegal immigration spreads across the liberal cities with sanctuary status, there are more people, more crimes, and fewer police officers to focus on safety and security.
Without consequences, these actions will just continue. It’s sad to see for these cities and their residents. They are doing it to themselves, though. Until they recognize just how badly they are making mistakes with these voting decisions, it will continue without end.
