Crime is surging in Aurora, Colorado, as police officers elect to “walk away” from calls on alleged criminals rather than get into potentially violent conflicts.
Major violent crimes in Aurora have surged 24.4% in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same span of time last year, according to CBS4. That statistic may obscure the impact of violent crime on the community as crime plummeted after a government-mandated lockdown went into place over the coronavirus pandemic, a local police union said.
“Crime across the board is going up. We’re having a lot of problems,” Aurora City Councilman Dave Gruber said. “Aurora is open to [criminals]. … Aurora is a low-risk area and that’s a message we need to fix and we need to stop that.”
From the first nine months of 2019 to the first nine months of 2020, murders are up 72%, armed assaults are up 34.3%, and robberies were up 31%, according to an analysis of crime statistics by CBS4. At the same time, physical arrests, or arrests made without a warrant, have plummeted 44.6% since 2019.
Judy Lutkin, union president of the Aurora Police Association, blamed the high crime rates on a number of factors, including the current cultural state of the country which has emboldened criminal behavior across the U.S.
Another contributing factor is “the general trend of social justice warrior police leadership who have given up on ‘law enforcement’ as the primary mission of the police,” Lutkin said. – READ MORE
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