Violent crime boom in US cities epicenter of BLM and “Defund the Police” protests
A year after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, US police data on the rise in crime rates in US cities show very worrying numbers.
In Portland, the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter protests last year, murders increased 533 percent over the previous twelve months; while shootings saw a 126 percent increase.
In New York there are 150 more crimes compared to 319 in 2019, while in Philadelphia the peak of 500 homicides is reached.
And again, among the cities that have supported the BLM initiatives – in addition to those already mentioned we also remember Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta – the crime rate of the first five months of 2021 is seven times higher than that of 2020.
According to police databases, a large part of this violence is attributable to the "Defund the Police" , a leftist movement that for years has been advocating to cut federal funds for the police and which took center stage immediately after Floyd's death.
Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to want to gloss over the problem. The most popular MP from the left wing of the party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, during a video conference with Jaamal Bowman, both members of the House of Representatives, seems to belittle the relevance of the data: "Any level of damage is unacceptable, but I want to make sure that this does not lead to hysteria and that we look at the numbers in context ”.
And again, California Congresswoman Karen Bass, the main Democratic negotiator in the House for police reform, accuses law enforcement of interfering in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, identifying the biggest problem "in the way in which groups of police forces" order are approaching the prospect of new legislation as an attack on their rights ”.
In short, the hostility of a certain left towards the police is nothing new. Despite everything, if on the one hand the Democrats have always blamed Trump for subversive, authoritarian ambitions; on the other hand, against the violence of the Black Lives Matter , a word of firm condemnation has never been pronounced.
Supporting the fight against racism through acts of violence does not mean fighting discrimination; rather it is equivalent to encouraging the performance of intolerant acts in the name of presumed tolerance. And this cannot be accepted.
Martin Luther King dreamed of an America where all citizens could live peacefully, regardless of skin color.
What is happening today in the States shows, however, the opposite scenario: looting, devastation and criminal acts mostly carried out in the name of the defense of one's identity, ethnicity and skin color.
Democrats will have to take responsibility: will future subversive acts be condemned firmly or will we continue to accept the existence of "free zones" in which violence is preached and practiced as the main political tool?
The post Boom of violent crimes in US cities, epicenter of the BLM protests and “Defund the Police” appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/boom-di-crimini-violenti-nelle-citta-usa-epicentro-delle-proteste-blm-e-defund-the-police/ on Fri, 02 Jul 2021 04:05:00 +0000.