“It’s absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where … and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.”
That was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) playing clueless over rampant crime in her district and in other Democratic-run cities across the country. Pelosi wonders where this “attitude of lawlessness” comes from as if she just spotted a UFO.
Gee. Perhaps it had something to do with the way many Democrats stood back and even embraced riots and lawlessness throughout 2020, all while advocating “bail reform” measures that put violent criminals back on the street. And remember, Pelosi dismissed lawless gangs last year when asked about it, declaring, “People will do what they do.”
On bail laws, exhibit A is the maniac charged with mowing down grandmothers and children in Waukesha, Wis., during a Christmas parade. The suspect, Darrell Brooks, despite being charged with attempting to kill the mother of his child days earlier by trying to run her over, was out on just $1,000 bail. Amazingly, neither the president nor vice president bothered to visit Waukesha and barely spoke about the murder spree directly, which was telling.
President Biden — who in the 1990s was considered a tough-on-crime senator (see: the 1994 crime bill) — did what was politically expedient during the campaign: mostly ignore the summer 2020 riots and looting and skyrocketing violent crime while calling for “police reform” at a time when law enforcement was under siege both in the streets and in the media, a call that has continued into his presidency.
Let’s look back at Biden’s three biggest speeches leading up to and after the election. Not once did he voice strong support for police officers trying to do their jobs. Not once did he address lax bail laws that put violent offenders back on the street to strike again. Those addresses were his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (24 million viewers) in August 2020, his victory speech following the election (25 million viewers) in November 2020 and his inauguration (34 million viewers) in January 2021.
As president, Biden has made stopping and controlling COVID-19 and the multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better spending bills the primary focus of the limited speeches he’s given. If you can find even one speech in which the president strongly condemns violent crime and offers concrete solutions to help fix the problem, you win valuable prizes.
The public easily spots the lack of focus, the lack of a plan. ABC News finds that just 36 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of crime. And according to a Rasmussen poll, 89 percent of likely voters say crime will only get worse. That’s a direct indictment of the president and his strategy on the crisis.
There is no spin or speech that can turn the tide.
At least 16 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021. In a related story, all 16 of those cities are run by Democratic mayors.
So, what does one of the most outspoken members of Congress have to say about this tsunami of a crime wave?
“A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told the Washington Times despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
This is the same lawmaker who declared the following last month: “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so that the exact same police remain in schools.”
So, Democrats own this crime wave based on their own deeds, their own actions, their own words.
Americans see what’s on their TV screens and smartphones on a daily basis. They see the smash-and-grab looting in city after city. We now live in a more expensive country. And a far less safe country. This is a recipe for political disaster in 2022 and 2024.
Because when violent and repeat felons can go free, and when crimes of theft are demoted from felonies to misdemeanors, it puts police in an almost impossible position. Result: a record number of police retirements and resignations in precincts across the country.
The House Speaker says she has no idea how criminals have become so aggressive, so fearless of prosecution and how cities such as her San Francisco have become so lawless.
Do Pelosi and the president inspire confidence that they’re taking this crisis seriously?
That’s a rhetorical question.
Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist for The Hill.