Anybody with a passing familiarity with what’s going on in this country knows that crime is out of control in our cities. Large cities, many of which are in the hands of Democrats, are seeing crime rates skyrocket.
At least a dozen U.S. cities have broken homicide records. Philadelphia is one of them, and that city’s previous homicide record stood for 31 years. Like so many other Democrat mayors of big cities, Philly’s Mayor Jim Kenney doesn’t seem to make the connection between his party’s policies and the spiraling crime in his city.
“It’s terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories,” Kenney said. “It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy, and this needs to stop.”
Was he referring to the crime itself as what “needs to stop,” or is he frustrated by the media coverage? Either way, it’s not going to stop of its own free will. The media coverage will stop when crime dies down, but that’s not going to happen as long as Democrats follow policies that are designed to go soft on criminals. Mayor Kenney, have you met your District Attorney, Larry Krasner?
Krasner is a dolt who thinks everything is just fine in Philadelphia, thank you very much. Last week, my PJ Media colleague Rick Moran pointed out something Krasner said that’s just wild:
“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” the district attorney told reporters at a Monday press conference. “It’s important that we don’t let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of big spike in crime. There isn’t. There is not a big spike in crime. … There is not a big spike in violent crime. Neither one of these things is true.”
Oh, okay.
Krasner later said that he had said something rather inartful.
“I know that some inarticulate things I said earlier this week have offended people. The message conveyed through media sound bites is not at all what I meant,” Krasner said in a statement released Thursday.
Krasner then went on to say that he will be more careful in the future but fell short of making an apology or changing his remarks from the Monday press conference.
“Complete answers based on data aimed at solutions to gun violence will be edited down to sound bites. It’s my job to make sure even those sound bites are careful. As someone whose strong support is owed in part to the fact that I don’t communicate or make decisions like a career politician, it is my obligation to do better,” Krasner said.
Sure, Larry. The real problem is that you have to speak in sound bites.
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Then there’s Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (who, by the way, is nowhere near as talented as Gordon Lightfoot). She also made a ridiculous statement last week, basically blaming the victim — in this case, high-end stores in the city.
“We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they’ve got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags,” the seemingly clueless mayor said. “These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units.”
That’s right: it’s really the fault of business owners. I bet the people of Chicago sleep more safely at night knowing that Lightfoot doesn’t support the Defund the Security Guards movement.
As another esteemed PJ Media colleague, Stephen Kruiser, noted:
Both of these cities have been electing Democrats for decades, so it is difficult to feel much in the way of pity for them. Maybe they should seriously consider not voting like paste-eaters going forward.
Nah, better just go hire a mall cop and not pay any attention to the smell of rotting corpse coming from the alley.
The cherry on top of the sundae just might be outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. In a statement that was more tone-deaf than a three-year-old singing along to “Let It Go” while watching Frozen for the millionth time, de Blasio says that he’s leaving the city safer than it was before he took office.
“Eight years I’ve been mayor, index crimes, major crimes in New York City down 11% over eight years. And we did it bringing police and community closer together,” the mayor said. “The bottom line is that there is today in New York City, a much safer city than we were eight years ago.”
“I have confidence and the NYPD has confidence that we’re going to get back to the prepandemic levels soon, and then surpass, and become even safer,” he added. “And the statistics show it in most of the city; there are a few places where we’re struggling.”
I guess those “few places” include crime stats. Bear with me while I throw some numbers at you.
In 2021, crime as a whole is up 4% over 2020. Most violent crimes are up: murder by 1.4%, rape by 2%, robbery by 4.5%, and felony assault by 9.1%. The biggest rises in crime have occurred in grand larceny auto (14.1%), other sex crimes (29.2%), and hate crimes (93%). That doesn’t sound like a safer city to me, how about you?
The more these Democrats open their mouths about crime, the more opportunities they have to stick their feet in their mouths. Let ’em keep talking. Here’s hoping the voters will listen and respond accordingly.
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