Misguided calls from the left to “defund” the police threaten to put Democrats in the position of the Nixon era, when they were successfully painted as soft on crime. The party should respond with a national crime bill that lays out in detail a pragmatic approach that is both forward-looking in addressing the root causes of crime but also aggressively protects victims in the here-and-now.
Crime rates in general haven’t risen markedly, but homicide rates across America have skyrocketed. The pandemic is almost certainly a factor. With most of the country sheltered-in for most of last year, all forms of domestic strife certainly have risen. The economic disruption could be a factor. Reduced policing in the wake of last year’s protests of police brutality might have played a role. And the ever-loosening restrictions on firearms in places like Missouri certainly haven’t helped.
The criminal justice reform movement ascendant on the left is right about a lot: It’s right to view crime as a societal ill with societal causes, most prominently, poverty. It’s no coincidence — now in America, or throughout the history of civilization everywhere — that violent crime is worst in areas where poverty is most acute, regardless of the skin color of those living in poverty.
