In Milwaukee, homicides were up 180% by May 17 over the same period the previous year. Through April, shootings in St. Louis were up 39%, robberies 43%, and homicides 25%. “Crime is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said St. Louis Alderman Joe Vacarro at a May 7 City Hall hearing.Murders in Atlanta were up 32% as of mid-May. Shootings in Chicago had increased 24% and homicides 17%. Shootings and other violent felonies in Los Angeles had spiked by 25%; in New York, murder was up nearly 13%, and gun violence 7%.Those citywide statistics from law-enforcement officials mask even more startling neighborhood-level increases. Shooting incidents are up 500% in an East Harlem precinct compared with last year; in a South Central Los Angeles police division, shooting victims are up 100%….
….This incessant drumbeat against the police has resulted in what St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson last November called the “Ferguson effect.” Cops are disengaging from discretionary enforcement activity and the “criminal element is feeling empowered,” Mr. Dotson reported. Arrests in St. Louis city and county by that point had dropped a third since the shooting of Michael Brown in August. Not surprisingly, homicides in the city surged 47% by early November and robberies in the county were up 82%.
Source: The New Nationwide Crime Wave – WSJ
When you have people with “the best intentions” but lacking in Real Life Knowledge in positions of power aided by idiots with a political agenda (or vice versa), the consequences tend to be bloody.
And I am not going to be as naive as to make this a Left-Only problem. We have our share of idiots who have helped this collapse by painting Bad Cops and bad police procedures as a standard policy and behavior because it has been the fashionable thing to do among the Chest Beaters.
Let’s be Rham Emannuel crass, shall we? We are presented with a unique opportunity: By openly supporting Law Enforcement during these times, we can only but gain points for the future of our cause. Cops are not going away anytime soon nor the Powers That Be want them gone as they are not stupid and understand that they will become victims themselves if they make them disappear or castrate their effectiveness.
That bad cops need to go and bad procedures need to be fixed? Yes. should paint every cop as a killer and every procedure as corrupt? That is stupid and basically doing what the Left is doing and people are now paying with their lives. You do not torch a Cadillac just because the cup holder leaks and the radio won’t come on. Let’s fix the crap that needs to be fixed only.
Cops have rather long memories, How do you want to be remembered?
I understand what the cops are doing. And in a way, I don’t blame them. One questionable act and the people in charge will throw them under the bus in a heartbeat. They are in a no-win situation.
The cops need to look around and clean up their own house and the people need to take a good look at these “leaders” and clean house there too. The bad cops are giving them all a bad name and the bad leaders are giving whole cities a bad name. Right now, I wouldn’t go to a big city where I’m not allowed to carry. I think more of my life than that.
It’s times like these that I’m glad I never went into law enforcement.
Police abuse their authority because they can. They won’t stop until people make them.
The poor little victim act they put on is just pathetic.
“Until you start worshiping us again, we won’t do our jobs!
Fish rot from the head.
Bad police officers are a result of bad police leadership which is a result of bad political leadership.
And let’s leave the idealistic naivete to the SJW’s and socialist. We will always need law enforcement.
Miguel,
This is the most intelligent and insightful post I have read on the internet about this problem.
Somewhere along the line it was taken for granted that law enforcement needs to EARN the respect of the people they serve, and yes, police are a government service. The backlash against law enforcement is the result of bad policing, abuse, corruption, militarization, and all around us vs them attitude that made everyday citizens the enemies of police. Liberals and conservatives alike, because of the war on drugs/terror/poverty, have armed the police with military equipment and excused every bit of bad behavior. Police have eroded the confidence the public has placed in them to nothing, and this pullback is making it worse.
Conservatives can cite all the stats they want about how cops kill more white people than black people or whatever, but they don’t get that the appearance of impropriety by the government is enough to make the system fall apart. When the chief of police is on CNN explaining how it was totally within the code of conduct for a muscle bound 250 lbs cop to straddle a 65 year old woman and beat the hell out of her MMA style, he might be technically right, but the trust the people have in their police force is gone.
It has become plainly obvious that the cities need police to do their jobs to keep the criminal element in check. But until the police keep their own criminality and abuse in check the police will still be an unwanted occupying force.
Good cops and good policies make good cities, bad cops and bad policies – even the appearance of bad cops and bad policies – make for a spiral of destruction.
“But until the police keep their own criminality and abuse in check the police will still be an unwanted occupying force.”
The police aren’t an “unwanted occupying force” because of their problems — but because the inner city is run by thugs, for thugs, as part of a culture that worships thugs. I won’t deny there are police who shouldn’t be on the job, and procedures that should land everyone responsible in prison, but the primary problem in the cities isn’t the police, but the criminals.
It’s both. I lived in Chicago. I saw what happened there with my own eyes. Not everybody is a criminal or a thug or has that attitude. For many citizens, it is a question of: who scares your more? Are you more worried about being killed in a gang cross fire or are your more worried about getting killed by some jerk-off CPD officer with a bad attitude. Keep in mind, Chicago just settled a multi million dollar lawsuit for kidnapping people and torturing them in a warehouse. It’s the Catch 22 of living in one of these communities no cops and you get hit by a stray bullet in a gang war, yes cops than they shoot you because they are a bunch of ignorant donut-munchers, over-militarized and with bad attitudes.
When you ‘encourage’ the bad guys, they ARE going to take advantage… And yes, get rid of bad cops and bad procedures IMMEDIATELY! Otherwise, we’re in a decreasing spiral around the drain.
Why use only the percentages that the crime increased? OOOH! the rate increased 100%. That’s some number until you realize that the base number is 2. This smacks of the usual sensationalist journalism.
I am sorry I did not fed you the specific numbers.Ind to assume the readers of this blog are well versed in the use of search engines and have the initiative to do so.
Milwaukee Jan to May 2014 = 31 homicides according to Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Jan to May 2015 = 63 homicides. So you are right, the number is wrong and it should be 108% not 180%.
Milwaukee all 2014: 94 homicides. So they are past 2/3s already in six months only.
Now, next time, we expect you to do your due diligence before trying to do some oral pedicure.
Why can’t we go back to the policing approaches of the 1970s or so?
You know, the officers actually walking the beat and meeting the citizens.
Officers dressed smartly, but not in ninja-tactical black in MRAPs and armed for WWIII?
(This is my personal irritation…LEO-only firearms. Screw that. Read the Constitution.)
How about they treat armed citizens as a blessing and not as a hassle and get rid of the idiot and politically motivated police chiefs who call for gun control?
How about we get some new politicians who will support the police and not condemn them.
I’m a dreamer…