Prominent Democrats spent recent years advocating for the "defund the police" movement.
MUST WATCH: 7 straight minutes of Democrats calling to Defund the Police.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 10, 2021
They can't be trusted to keep Americans safe!pic.twitter.com/Y7lwPAnEiw
Some localities took their cue and reduced funding for their law enforcement agencies. As The Federalist reported, it's no surprise that violent crime has since increased.
According to the FBI’s 2020 crime statistics, there were more than 1,277,696 violent crimes committed in the United States in 2020. While robbery and rape offenses fell in 2020 compared to 2019, murder and “nonnegligent manslaughter offenses” increased by 29.4 percent. Motor vehicle thefts have also increased by 11.8 percent since 2019.
“For the first time in four years, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation increased when compared with the previous year’s statistics,” the FBI admitted in a press release.
The numbers, which indicate a national crime surge, come shortly after Democrat-led city councils in Austin, Los Angeles, D.C., Baltimore, and Minneapolis voted to divert funds away from law enforcement or cut budgets that would have allowed for more officers to patrol the streets. The cuts were initiated shortly after the “summer of rage” in 2020 following the death of George Floyd. It was during this time that thousands of people rioted in the streets, calling “all cops b-stards” and even saying they should die.
A CNN report adds:
The United States has just recorded its highest increase in rates of homicide in modern history, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Provisional data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, released early Wednesday, suggest the homicide rate for the United States rose 30% between 2019 and 2020. It is the highest increase recorded in modern history -- and confirms through public health data a rise in homicides that so far had been identified only through crime statistics.
The previous largest increase in the US homicide rate was a 20% rise recorded from 2000 to 2001 because of the September 11 terror attacks, according to NCHS.
It seems that some are regretting their decision to "defund the police." On Sunday, The New York Times reported that several localities are reversing course.
In cities across America, police departments are getting their money back. From New York to Los Angeles, departments that saw their funding targeted amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd last year have watched as local leaders voted for increases in police spending, with an additional $200 million allocated to the New York Police Department and a 3 percent boost given to the Los Angeles force.
The abrupt reversals have come in response to rising levels of crime in major cities last year, the exodus of officers from departments large and small and political pressures. After slashing police spending last year, Austin restored the department’s budget and raised it to new heights. In Burlington, Vt., the city that Senator Bernie Sanders once led as mayor went from cutting its police budget to approving $10,000 bonuses for officers to stay on the job.
But perhaps nowhere has the contrast been as stark as in Dallas, where Mr. Johnson not only proposed to restore money to the department but moved to increase the number of officers on the street, writing over the summer that “Dallas needs more police officers.”
Democrats' dangerous rhetoric has real consequences for everyday Americans who are experiencing the breakdown of law and order in their communities.