The Democratic Party’s Acceptable Rate of Homicide Insanity
Maryland’s Governor Moore and Illinois’ Governor Pritzker can’t tell an emergency when they see one. Case and point, there were 263 murders in Baltimore in 2023, but in 2024, that number was down to 201. With a population of 568,271, the 2023 and 2024 numbers represent an emergency. Canada shares the U.S. border and its Quebec City, with a comparable population of 549,459, had only 7 homicides in 2023.
The Democratic party leaders, including its governors, seek to convince their constituents that America’s cities are safe. 201 homicides in Baltimore and 573 homicides in Chicago represent an acceptable level of murder. The grieving mother who buried her 13-year-old daughter caught in crossfire on a Chicago street begs to differ. Similarly, there will not be agreement from the college student whose refueling stop at a Memphis gas station culminated in having been shot and carjacked.
No doubt there are a myriad of social issues which contribute to violent crime; however, the reality is that the presence of law enforcement officers represent the most formidable resource needed to address violent crime.
Let’s face it. The Democratic leadership is out of sync with its constituents. Americans of any color and residential venue know that in their backyard, or a short distance away, carjacking, homicide, and strong-arm street robberies are an epidemic. Yet for some of those Americans with allegiance to Democratic Party alarmism, they are given false reassurances from their party that they need not worry since home invasions, carjackings, homicides, and strong-arm street robberies are at acceptable levels. Pritzker and Moore will not stop there if you push the envelope seeking more law enforcement resources; rather, they will lament your frustration by retorting that violent crime this year is down in comparison to last year.
A reasonable critic like this author expresses that big city crime data is plagued by undercounting. But even with the undercounts, it is obvious that a violent crime emergency is afoot in all of America’s big cities. And the most significant component of that emergency is not the carjackers who don black hoodies and order you out of your car at gunpoint, rather it is the lack of police officers.
Don’t blame the cops for being short-staffed. Blame the mayors and governors who shortchange communities by not hiring enough police officers. As a DC cop, I apologized to robbery victims for having arrived 3 hours after the robbery; however, please don’t blame me; rather, blame Democratic leaders who refuse to invest in law enforcement resources, especially hiring.
Many U.S. Police Departments like Chicago and the District of Columbia, require twice as many sworn officers. Chicago’s approximately 13,000 officers should be 26,000 officers. This is because police presence matters. I learned early on, walking a beat– on the midnight shift– of D.C.’s crime-ridden H Street corridor– before the neighborhood’s transformation– that presence matters. Any “solid” competent big city cop anecdotally knows the value of “presence” of uniformed patrol, in particular foot patrol. Similarly, community members know too well the benefits of seeing cops everywhere. Residents feel safer and thugs will change plans. Robbery and carjacking are prevented when bad guys know the police are nearby. Similarly, homicide closure rates are higher when the police don’t have far to go to nab the criminal. I know from experience that a gunman is easily neutralized because we were already there when he started discharging his uzi machine gun from a 5th floor window.
No doubt there are a myriad of social issues which contribute to violent crime; however, the reality is that the presence of law enforcement officers represent the most formidable resource needed to address violent crime. In this regard, the Flint, Michigan Foot Patrol Experiment results have applicability in 2025. Almost 70 percent of the citizens interviewed during the final year of the study felt safer because of the Foot Patrol Program and more than 61 percent reported that protection for women, children, and the aged had been increased.
For those in the know, this writer acknowledges that some foot patrol experiments revealed that despite foot patrols crime patterns went unchanged but that residents felt safer. Perhaps the explanation is that violent crime would have increased but for foot patrols. However, in Flint, the “Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program” the Neighborhood reduced crime rates by 8.7 percent and calls for service by 42 percent between 1979 and 1982.
Since many of our country’s big cities do not have enough police officers, let us welcome the White House’s contribution of extra officers and National Guard members. After all, the Democrats have had decades to demonstrate resolve against violent crime yet have failed at every turn.
Finally, we have a President committed to protecting all, and especially the most vulnerable, from violent criminals.
Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Moore are the only fearmongers in the room. President Trump is not proposing tanks rolling down city streets or any sort of militarization; rather, he is proposing a coordinated effort between local law enforcement and other agencies and entities to include the National Guard. Yet the Gavin Newsom’s of the country will not acknowledge this reality, rather will use words like racism and dictatorship. The only racism follies and dictatorships afoot, are the ones in which Mr. Newsome, Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Moore deprive residents who live in the most crime ridden neighborhoods an opportunity to reap the benefits of added law enforcement resources.
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