+as backlash arrived for police-bashing"
:ithin hours of 6aturday’s shooting in Times 6Tuare where three bystanders, including a -year-old girl, were wounded, the two leading candidates to replace 0ayor Bill de Blasio were onsite.
Brooklyn Borough 3resident (ric $dams, a retired captain of the NY3D, and $ndrew Yang, who declared
“0y fellow New Yorkers ... Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police . ... 0y message to the NY3D is this New York needs you. Your city needs you.
“New York cannot afford to defund the police.´
The rush of $dams and Yang to the scene of the shooting, and the messages they delivered, tells us something about the state of play in politics ± ± and not only in the city of New York.
Liberal mayors and urban politicians who enlisted in the Black Lives 0atter “defund the police´ movement after the death of *eorge )loyd in 0inneapolis last 0ay, appear to have caught a wave that is now receding.
In the streets of $merica’s cities, violent crimes are spiking to heights unseen since the
0s. $nd, instead of “Defund the 3olice ´ the insistent cry is, “:here are the cops"´ $tlanta is a case in point. 0ayor .eisha Lance Bottoms just announced she will not run for a second term. :hile she listed issues and events that e[hausted her energy, The New York Times suggests that $tlanta’s soaring crime rate made her vulnerable and Bottoms was looking at possible defeat.
:rites 5ichard )ausset of the Times
“The most serious political threat that emerged for 0s. Bottoms in recent months was a phenomenon she had previously described as the µ&ovid crime wave.’ ... $tlanta is struggling with a spike in violent crime, including a percent increase in homicides last year...
“The mayor’s inability to get a handle on crime has become the central theme for two challengers,´ one of whom is city council president )elicia 0oore.
“’$tlanta has a mayor that is more interested in things that happen outside $tlanta,’ 0s. 0oore said in a recent statement, referring to 0s. Bottoms’s emerging national stature, including talk that she was rumored to be a possible vice-presidential candidate. µ:e need a mayor who knows the No. job of any mayor is to keep our city safe.’´
6o visceral is the public reaction to the crime wave in $tlanta that in Buckhead, a wealthy enclave in the northern section of the city, there is talk of secession and taking its ta[ base with it.
:hy is crime rising and not only in $tlanta"
$mong the reasons the demoni]ation and demorali]ation of police departments under constant fire for harboring “rotten apples´ and rogue cops. 6een by cops as anti-cop, this campaign is generating police resignations, retirements and reductions in force.
The NY3D has lost of its force and is in a recruitment crisis.
Large reductions in the number of cops have also been recorded in &hicago, 0inneapolis, 0ilwaukee and $tlanta. Then there is the “)erguson (ffect´ where cops avoid aggressive policing for fear a mistake could cost them their reputation and career, or worse.
In a nation as violent as ours, with daily confrontations between cops and often aggressive and armed suspects, police errors are going to be made. There are going to be unwarranted and unnecessary shootings, woundings and even killings.
In any war, there are casualties and collateral damage, and that is true of $merica’s “war on crime´ ± ± another of our forever wars.
But the daily reports of escalating violent crime, resulting in growing numbers of innocent wounded and dead, are inducing a fear for safety that is outstripping any fear of cops. $nd politicians are beginning to see the numbers shift and reacting accordingly.
&onsider a few of the crime numbers compiled by The +ill
2020 witnessed more than 20,000 criminal homicides with a huge share of that spike occurring in urban $merica.
New York saw 0 additional homicides and 0 additional shootings in 2020 than in 20 . &hicago saw 2 more homicides and , additional shootings in 2020 than in 20 .
Los $ngeles saw homicides rise as shootings spiked
0 . :ashington, D.&., ended 2020 with homicides up for the third straight year.
.illings in 3hiladelphia, where homicides have risen every year since 20 , almost reached 00, a 0 increase. In Louisville, homicides jumped 0 .
In Detroit, shootings and homicides rose for the second year in a row, increasing by
.
+omicides spiked for the second straight year in 0inneapolis, to deaths ± ± the highest tally since . &leveland had its highest murder tally since 2, after a nearly 0 jump in killings last year.
+ouston hit murders in 2020 ± ± a 2 increase over 20 . Indianapolis saw a 0 jump in murders. )or Denver, the murder increase was 0 percent.
&ops aren’t doing these killings. They’re doing their jobs trying to prevent these killings and apprehend the killers.