Did America’s ‘defund the police’ movement result in the largest percentage increase in homicides in US history? Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of “The War On Cops” makes a strong argument that it likely did.
In a Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed, Mac Donald notes that 2020 ‘likely saw the largest percentage increase in homicides in American history,’ noting that murder was up almost 37% across a sample of 57 large and medium-size cities. According to preliminary figures, “at least 2,000 more Americans, most of them black, were killed in 2020 than 2019.”
And while the establishment media is largely blaming the pandemic for the spike, Mac Donald says the chronology doesn’t support that assertion – and President Biden’s criminal-justice policies stand to exacerbate the ongoing crime wave while ignoring its causes.
The local murder increases in 2020 were startling: 95% in Milwaukee, 78% in Louisville, Ky., 74% in Seattle, 72% in Minneapolis, 62% in New Orleans, and 58% in Atlanta, according to data compiled by crime analyst Jeff Asher. Dozens of children, overwhelmingly black, were killed in drive-by shootings. They were slain in their beds, living rooms and strollers. They were struck down at barbecues, in their yards, in malls, in their parents’ cars, and at birthday parties. Fifty-five children were killed in Chicago in 2020, 17 in St. Louis, and 11 in Philadelphia. In South Los Angeles alone, 40 children were shot, some non-lethally, through September. –WSJ
The MSM, such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, suggested that the increase is due to the “economic, civic and interpersonal stress” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot similarly blamed pandemic-related “frustration, anger … trauma and mental health challenges.” – READ MORE
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