MURDOCK: Criminal Mayhem Is Devouring America’s Cities — There’s Only One Solution

MURDOCK: Criminal Mayhem Is Devouring America’s Cities — There’s Only One Solution

Deroy Murdock on October 2, 2022

Democrats promised that defunding the police would yield utopia. Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez predicted that America would look “like a suburb.”

AOC did not mention that this posh village would include hoodlums breaking into mansions, residents getting robbed beside white-picket fences and neighbors seeing BMWs carjacked at gunpoint.

This horror show is the result of deliberate Democrat policies:

• Defund the police.
• Demonize the police.
• Demoralize the police.
• Pro-criminal “prosecutors” who defend punks.
• Decriminalize shoplifting.

When Californians swipe less than $950 worth of goods per instance, this barely enforced misdemeanor becomes a 100% discount. Businesses cannot survive by donating their merchandise. Violent criminals watch this lawlessness and think: “Our time is now.”

Michael Palacios was arrested on Sept. 16 for terrorizing a Manhattan McDonald’s with an ax. Eighteen hours later, he was free without bail.

• Some judges wish to hold dangerous offenders but cannot. Others gleefully give culprits second, 43rd and even 102nd chances.

The NYPD says that Kevin Douglas allegedly attacked Thai fashion model Bew Jirajariywetch on the Subway last February. Douglas had 44 prior arrests, including 16 on May 13, 2019. He was released 15 times that day.

“Super perp” Sean Cooper was arrested for allegedly stabbing Uber Eats delivery man Bharatbhai Patel on Tuesday. It was Cooper’s 103^rd time in handcuffs.

Now what?

Democrats cannot be trusted on crime. Period. They are too wedded to political correctness and “equity” to inconvenience lawbreakers. The solution is to pry Democrats from office. Republicans can fight crimes without getting their boxers and panties into knots over evil-doers’ ethnicity.

Local, state, and — where appropriate — federal GOP candidates should promise this path back to law and order:

• Deny law-enforcement grants to jurisdictions that let wrongdoers run rampant.
• Subject pro-criminal “prosecutors” such as Chicago’s Kim Foxx, Los Angeles’ George Gascón and Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner to withering interrogation at oversight hearings.
• As Sen. Ted Cruz recommends, deny confirmation to pro-criminal Biden appointees, as should have befallen police-defunding cheerleaders Kristen Clark and Vanita Gupta. They now are top Justice Department officials.
• Fund the police: Boost budgets to recruit, train, pay, promote and retain police officers.
• Entice rookies by helping them pay their college debts in exchange for law-enforcement service.
• Where possible, fire pro-criminal prosecutors. If sworn-in as governor, New York Republican Lee Zeldin promises immediately to sack Manhattan’s thug-hugging DA, Alvin Bragg. He is yet another far-Left “prosecutor” funded by real-life James Bond villain George Soros.
• Conservative donors should furnish the antidote to Soros’ poison. Their campaign cash can help recall his faux “prosecutors” and replace them with crime-crushing lawmen.

Once elected, Republicans should reinstate the Broken Windows police strategies that Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton used to transform Gotham swiftly from America’s crime capital into its safest metropolis.

Giuliani and Bratton confirmed that quality-of-life criminals who jumped turnstiles and urinated in public often robbed, raped and killed, too. Lesson: Hit minor crime, hammer major crime.

“Stop, Question and Frisk” helped cops approach and address suspicious characters and, if warranted, check them for illegal weapons. This nabbed some crooks and deterred others.

Pinpointing crime hotspots and deploying cops accordingly slashed lawlessness. Go figure. Shifting cops from desks to foot patrols fostered visual enforcement, improved community relations, and encouraged citizens to say something if they saw something.

These efforts were reinforced by lock-’em-up prosecutors, judged by no-nonsense jurists and applauded by New Yorkers who, once again, enjoyed walking home without getting killed.

Republicans have five weeks to remind voters that the mayhem devouring America’s cities and suburbs is no accident. It flows downstream from public policies willfully inflicted by the criminal’s best friend, today’s Democrat Party.

Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor Deroy Murdock is a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.