As multiple American cities debate “defunding” the police, violent crimes are already on the rise. This should have been as predictable as the rising sun, yet some media outlets seem surprised.
Ashley Southall and Neil MacFarquhar write at the New York Times:
Gun Violence Spikes in N.Y.C., Intensifying Debate Over PolicingIt has been nearly a quarter century since New York City experienced as much gun violence in the month of June as it has seen this year.The city logged 125 shootings in the first three weeks of the month, more than double the number recorded over the same period last year, police data show. Gunmen opened fire during house parties, barbecues and dice games, and carried out coldly calculated street executions.More than a dozen people have been fatally shot, including a teenager at her college graduation party and a clothing designer who was washing his car. “You have to go back to 1996 to have a worse start of June,” Michael LiPetri, the chief of crime control strategies, said in an interview on Monday.The rising toll of gun violence has become part of a contentious debate over the future of policing in the wake of mass protests against police brutality. Police unions and their supporters have issued shrill warnings that the city was slipping into a high-crime era reminiscent of the early 1990s.On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city was sending more officers into the streets and declared he would not retreat from efforts to overhaul the Police Department.
Chicago saw over 100 shootings over the weekend.
The Chicago Sun Times reports:
104 shot, 14 fatally, over Father’s Day weekend in ChicagoChicago saw its highest number of gun violence victims in a single weekend this year with 104 people shot across the city from Friday evening to Monday morning, 14 of them fatally. Five of those killed were minors.The weekend saw more shooting victims but less fatalities than the last weekend of May, when 85 people were shot, 24 of them fatally — Chicago’s most deadly weekend in years.In a Sunday news conference, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown reflected on the surge in gun violence. “Bullets don’t just tear apart the things they strike,” Brown said. “Bullets also tear apart families. Bullets destroy neighborhoods and they ruin any sense of safety in a community.”
Minneapolis is out of control.
CBS News in Minnesota reports:
‘It’s Just Stupid’: Police Data Shows 1,600 Minneapolis Gunfire Reports Within 30 DaysShotSpotter technology has picked up more than 1,600 gunshots in Minneapolis in the past 30 days.Nine people were shot within four hours Monday in three separate shootings, witin about a two-mile radius in north Minneapolis.The numbers show that there have been over 100 people shot in Minneapolis since the death of George Floyd. Early Monday evening, Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo called on additional help to end the violence.“It will not be tolerated by our police department, by our chief, by me,” Frey said.Just after 2:30 p.m., four people were shot near the 1600 block of Morgan Avenue North. At about 4:09 p.m., four more people were shot at West Broadway and North Lyndale avenues. At 6:41 p.m., another person was shot near North 25th Avenue and North 4th Street.
This recently happened in New York City:
As did this. It doesn’t even look real:
The law-abiding, tax-paying, people who live in these cities must demand that local leadership back law enforcement and restore order.
Featured image via YouTube.
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