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President Donald Trump wants to drive down crime in some of our most dangerous cities. Democrats are furious, coming down hard — once again — on the wrong side of an issue that affects millions of Americans.
Why would the leaders of high-crime cities like Washington and Chicago object to the president helping to make their streets safer? They are panicked that Trump will succeed, exposing them as the inept, corrupt leaders they truly are.
For decades, Democrats have struggled to overcome GOP accusations that they were “soft on crime.” In 1994, trying to combat that charge, President Bill Clinton signed into law the most sweeping anti-crime bill in history. It funded the hiring of 100,000 new police officers, authorized the construction of new prisons and introduced a “three-strikes” law mandating lengthy jail terms for repeat offenders.
TRUMP’S WEEK SHAPED BY CRIME AGENDA, POTENTIAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT TO CHICAGO
That was Democrats’ high-water mark for cracking down on crime. In recent years, party leaders, including former President Joe Biden, have apologized for the 1994 crime bill, now considered by the left to be racist and overly harsh. Especially in the post-George Floyd era, Democrats have adopted policies such as defunding the police and no-bail reform, which have made our cities more dangerous and favor criminals over citizens.
President Trump is trying to reverse course. He is threatening to send troops to violence-prone cities and has just signed an executive order to eliminate cashless bail, a policy that sends criminals back onto the streets, often to offend again.
Just as they did decades ago, Democrats are walking into a trap, resisting what most citizens applaud. In recent months, they have championed criminals in the country illegally, protested President Trump’s deportation policies and now they are opposing safe streets.
It doesn’t get dumber than that.
CHICAGO MAYOR CALLS TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD PLAN ‘MOST FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF OUR CONSTITUTION’
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson greeted speculation that President Trump may soon send National Guard troops to the Windy City with an X post calling the move “the most flagrant violation of our Constitution in the 21st Century.” He further boasted: “The City of Chicago does not need a military occupation.”
Actually, it does. One headline from this summer says it all: “At least 55 people shot, 8 fatally, in 4th of July weekend.”
Chicago, once a prosperous and orderly city, has descended into lawlessness, with a murder rate that keeps people sheltering in their homes at night. Though the number of killings has declined this year, Chicago still ranks among the most murder-prone cities in the U.S. By mid-August, Chicago had suffered 254 homicides. In New York City, with a population nearly three times larger, there were only 201 murders in the same timeframe.
During the last mayoral race in 2023, a poll showed that two-thirds of the city’s residents didn’t feel safe from crime. Asked to rank which issues were most important in choosing the next mayor, 44% said crime and public safety — by far the top issue. The economy and jobs came in at just 12%.
CHICAGO’S CRIME CRISIS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE — TRUMP MUST STEP IN NOW
Continuing high crime is one reason polls show Johnson has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the United States, at 26%. Johnson, two years into the job, is underwater with every racial and income group. Despite making a big show of welcoming illegal immigrants and defying President Trump’s ban on sanctuary cities, Johnson is unpopular with Hispanics, earning only 26% approval from that group.
Though he has prioritized programs catering to minority residents, Johnson, who is Black, also falls short with African Americans, of whom only 38% approve of the job he’s doing.
Black voters may dislike Johnson because the crime targeted by President Trump occurs mainly in their neighborhoods. The Chicago Crime Lab reports that “Black residents [are]…22 times more likely to be killed compared to white residents.” They also note, “neighborhoods with the highest homicide rates experience approximately 68 times more homicides than those with the lowest rates.”
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Johnson dismisses concerns about crime and said in an interview with NPR that President Trump sending in the National Guard would be “not Democratic, illegal, and costly.” He also argued it would not bring Chicago’s crime down and touted recent declines in violent offenses in the Windy City.
But across the U.S., crime has dropped from post-pandemic levels; Chicago’s gains are not unique. And cities like Washington, Chicago, and Baltimore — another possible target mentioned by Trump — are not safe.
Sending in federal troops makes them safer, and it isn’t only President Trump who has shown that to be true. In March 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul deployed 750 National Guardsmen into New York City’s subways to stem a deadly wave of people being pushed in front of trains and other offenses.
Subway crime dropped, and Hochul appears to have no plans to remove the soldiers still patrolling the stations and trains. She explained, “I think people will tell you … they feel much safer.” No kidding.
That hasn’t kept her from criticizing the president, calling his initial deployment of 800 troops into D.C. a show of “abusive power.” She maintains that her situation was different because she had the cooperation of local officials.
It is true that Washington’s Mayor Muriel Bowser has not supported Trump’s efforts to bring down crime in the District. In its earliest days, she sounded positive about the beefed-up law enforcement presence, saying, “What I’m focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the federal officers that we have.”
Pushed by political allies to follow the anti-Trump playbook, her optimism evaporated as she urged residents to “make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push.” An authoritarian push that has seen crime in Washington plummet.
President Trump is betting that the residents of cities plagued by violence and theft will welcome his assault on crime. He’s probably right. Democrats should wise up.
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