WIREPOINTS: Red states, blue cities… Who’s to blame for America’s homicide crisis

WirePoints hits another home run, looking at the political leadership of America’s homicide hotspots.  Not that die-hard, gun-hating liberal Democrats will ever blame anything except white supremacy (even though black-on-black crime is so prevalent), guns (NOT gangs!) and those darn heartless Republicans (who intermittently stand in the way of recreating past tyrannies) for the violence in Democrat-run cities.

From WirePoints.  This is just an excerpt.  Read the whole thing…

Red states, blue cities: Who’s to blame

There’s a debate raging over who’s responsible for the surge in homicides and violent crime across the country. California Gov. Gavin Newsom blames Republicans, saying that “8 of the top murder states are red.” Left-leaning think tank Third Way claims it’s “red” state-level leadership and policies that are responsible for the nation’s homicide problem. And Politico’s recent analysis on gun violence claims the problem is most acute in places “where Republicans have dominated state governments for decades.”

The problem with those arguments is that local governments, and not states, are overwhelmingly responsible for managing crime. Yes, state officials set criminal penalties and some broader parameters, but it’s mayors who control police and policing, local prosecutors who decide what to prosecute, and district/county judges who determine who to sentence.

State-level gun laws are often cited as the key factor explaining murder rates, but gun-friendly Maine, Idaho, Utah, Iowa have some of the nation’s lowest homicide rates, according to most-recent CDC data. Then there are states like Illinois, Maryland and Delaware that have strict gun laws and yet have relatively high homicide rates. Illinois often complains that the permissive gun laws of its neighboring states are to blame, but that doesn’t explain why its neighbors have much lower homicide rates.

The answer is that it’s not a red vs. blue state debate, but rather a red vs. blue city one. And when you look at America’s homicide hotspots, the vast majority are run by blue leadership and they have been for decades. The evidence is overwhelming.

The long-term leadership data is even more telling. Nearly half of the 30 cities have been run continuously by Democrats since at least 1970. And in the last decade, Democrats have run nearly all the homicide hotspots.

It’s their policies, then, that deserve the most scrutiny.

More on the significance of local policies…

Local control matters

There’s a big reason George Soros spent millions of dollars to get progressive prosecutors like Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner, Chicago’s Kim Foxx and St. Louis’ Kim Gardner elected. Criminal justice, and its execution, is local. Who’s in those positions matters because, as Politico reports, “the prosecutor exercises the greatest discretion and power in the system. It is so important.”

Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner, for example, has focused on the rights of the accused and social programs instead of tough prosecutions and sentencing. Data from Krasner’s office shows a sharp drop in the conviction rate for weapons offenses and a large jump in weapons cases withdrawn or dismissed by his prosecutors.

St. Louis’ former prosecutor Kim Gardner made headlines with her progressive agenda. Her time in office was marked by a significant decline in filed cases, an increase in dismissals and a decrease in murder convictions. 

Local judges also have a major impact on criminal justice through their bail and sentencing policies. Cook County’s Chief Judge Tim Evans, for example, has pushed decarcerationist policies for two decades now. He and his office are responsible for an increased use of electronic monitoring, greater use of diversion programs, a shift to little-to-no-cash bail and more.