An October 2 interim report from the House Judiciary examined the uptick in violent crime in recent years in “major American cities” and found that Biden-Harris policies have “endanger[ed ]Americans” and “made American communities less safe.”
The Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance cited the “misguided and dangerous ‘defund the police’ movement,” the downgrading of serious crimes by “rogue prosecutors,” Democrat-run localities, and a failure to “prosecute firearms laws already on the books” as reasons for the “surge in violent crime.”
According to the report, the House Judiciary directly interviewed “crime victims, law enforcement officials, advocates, and residents of major cities” in their effort to understand how everyday Americans are affected by Left-leaning policies. Americans reported feeling “powerless… and ignored by the district attorneys in positions of power.”
In addition, law enforcement officers reportedly shared stories of “continually putting their lives on the line, only to see the violent criminals they arrest set free.” Indeed, it seems bail reform in cities like New York and San Francisco has arguably made neighborhoods and police officers “less safe.”
The Committee examined public safety policies and related budget cuts in four major metropolitan areas; New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. Starting around 2020, these cities were leaders in the “defund the police” movement, cutting their law enforcement budgets significantly.
Regarding reductions in police department budgets, the House investigation reported NYC cut its police department funding by $1 billion in 2020. Chicago, under Mayor Lightfoot, cut its Chicago Police Department (CPD) by $80 million. Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia reduced their police department budgets by “$15 million in 2021” and “$33.3 million in 2020” respectively.
In November 2023, the New York Post confirmed a reduction to “just 29,000 cops by end of fiscal year 2025, the lowest level since the mid-90s.” The Post explains the NYPD budget “of $5.6 billion will be cut by $132 million” in FY2024 alone.
Washington, D.C., according to the House report saw an “111 percent” rise in cases of sexual assault, an increase in homicides “by 38 percent,” a “surge” in motor vehicle assaults of “106 percent,” and an “over 125 percent” increase in arson incidents.
Liberal district attorneys can meaningfully affect crime levels in cities. One of the typical examples noted in the report was the district attorney of New York, Alvin Bragg. He and other Democrat DAs have been notoriously soft on crime, causing meaningful shifts in crime levels.
Bragg’s Harlem upbringing is foundational to his perspective on crime. He speaks of firsthand experiences with crime and alludes to fears of unfair prosecutions.
His January 3, 2022 letter lays out the basis for his policies which tend to “invest more in diversion and alternatives to incarceration.” Bragg openly advocates for a reduction in pretrial incarceration, sentence length as secondary to accountability, his aversion to prosecuting youth as adults, and programs that provide support for those “re-entering” society after incarceration.
“Broken Windows” policing during Mayor Rudolf Giuliani’s administration, which arguably radically transformed the city in the 1990s. Giuliani argued that even small visible crimes like broken windows encouraged a “decline in respect towards the law.”
Kim Foxx in Cook County, Illinois has similarly been hesitant to prosecute crimes. According to the report, “Foxx dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases, including cases for murder, sex crimes, and attacks on police officers.” Foxx also believes in bail reform. In 2021 alone, “a total of 2,300 ‘violent and dangerous people’” were released to the streets of Chicago, according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Surprisingly, Lightfoot openly challenged local bail policies. In 2022, Lightfoot asserted the following about bail reform policies,
“We shouldn’t be locking up nonviolent individuals just because they can’t afford to pay bail. But, given the exacting standards that the state’s attorney has for charging a case, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, when those charges are brought, these people are guilty,” Lightfoot said. “Of course they’re entitled to a presumption of innocence. Of course they’re entitled to their day in court. But residents in our community are also entitled to safety from dangerous people, so we need to keep pressing the criminal courts to lock up violent dangerous people and not put them out on bail or electronic monitoring back into the very same communities where brave souls are mustering the courage to come forward and say, ‘this is the person who is responsible.’”
Letting people who have been charged with violent crimes out on bond “undermines the legitimacy of the criminal courts,” she said.
The Judiciary is now considering legislative reforms “to address the rise in violent crime.” Among those potential reforms are
- legislative measures that would address the pretrial release of dangerous individuals,
- a bill, sponsored by Rep. Wesley Hunt that “allows Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant funding to support recruitment efforts by law enforcement agencies,”
- legislation (H.R. 7581)that addresses the welfare of law enforcement officers, specifically “related to violent attacks on law enforcement officers.”
According to the report, H.R. 7581passed the House in May, 2024. Republicans “unanimously voted in favor of the bill” but “55 Democrats opposed it.” The Senate has not yet considered the bill.
The issue of the rise in crime has been hotly debated on the campaign trail because of a recent FBI report on crime stating violent crime is decreasing. Former FBI agent Steve Friend explained that the FBI may well be performing its own version of statistical gymnastics with the data.
Friend, an FBI whistleblower, is well-acquainted with the FBI’s tendency to manipulate data to suit its political and funding needs. Friend told Breanna Morello that the FBI is playing a “numbers game.”
“It’s a numbers game,” said Friend, “It’s a statistically driven organization and they’re going to manipulate the stats to the way that best serves them. So here they had their minders and the Democrat Party [who] wanted the violent crime stats to look down. So, the FBI just didn’t collect about 30 to 31% of police departments’ data; including from major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and New York where all the violent crimes are happening.”
“And then,” Friend continued, “The FBI just sort of projected what they thought it could possibly be so they could get to that good bottom line number that then the fact checkers on the presidential debate could go out and try to make President Trump look like he was speaking out of his rear-end. But it’s just not true because crime stats have gone up dramatically.”
Come to find out, Friend may be correct in his assessment of the FBI’s sleight of hand crime data reporting. Last week it was widely reported that the FBI had manipulated crime statistics to make it seem as if they were dropping: “…the bureau quietly adjusted its figures for 2022 in recent weeks — and the new numbers show that offenses actually ticked up overall.” Lo and behold, crime was actually up 4.5%.
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