ICYMI: Stopping Crime and Restoring Safety
June 20, 2023
President Donald. J Trump reduced violent crime across the country and stood strongly with America’s law enforcement. On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed in virtually every American city and has put targets on the back of our law enforcement officials.
In Joe Biden’s first year in office, twelve major cities broke all-time high murder records.[1]
Since Joe Biden has taken office, over 779 people have been murdered in the city of Los Angeles, a 44% increase from the first two years of President Trump’s term.[2] Robberies, assaults, auto thefts in Los Angeles have increased every year since Joe Biden took office.[3]
At least nine cities, seven of which are Democrat-run, saw record homicides last year.[4]
Philadelphia recorded the highest number of homicides in its history in 2021, followed by its second-highest number of homicides in 2022.[5] Crime data shows New York City saw a 22% hike in crime in 2022 from 2021, with the most gun-related arrests in 27 years.[6] New York City set new felony crimes record last year, with the most felony crimes reported in at least 15 years.[7]
In Washington D.C., carjackings increased for the fifth straight year.[8]
In Chicago, crime increased 61% in the first three weeks of 2023 alone, compared to the previous year.[9]Murders in Compton, California nearly doubled in Joe Biden’s first year in office—an increase of 89% from 2020.[10] Walmart announced that it will be closing half its stores in Chicago.[11]
As the Biden administration does little to curb crime across the country, one of America’s biggest retailers, Target reported that looting has resulted in losses in excess of $400 million in 2022 alone.[12] CVS, one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains reported a 300% increase in theft in 2022.[13]
Rite Aid, a national drugstore chain, suffered over $5 million in losses as a result of theft in New York City, in their most recent quarter alone.[14]
As Democrat-run cities become bastions of violence and rioting, Joe Biden ended the practice of supplying local and state law enforcement with surplus military equipment and repeatedly proposed having unarmed civilian mental health officials respond to police calls.[15]
In April 2023, Biden commuted the sentences of 31 people convicted of drug crimes.[16]
Joe Biden has supported and promoted radical left-wing prosecutors and district attorneys, including hiring Soros-funded DA Rachael Rollins as Massachusetts’s top federal prosecutor.[17]
Joe Biden’s condemnation of America’s law enforcement has resulted in 45% increase in police retirements, with another 18% resigning altogether since he took office.[18]
The Baltimore Police Department lost about 280 officers last year, with the city short at least 600 officers.[19]
It requires little imagination to explain the mass exodus of America’s police officers. Joe Biden publicly denounced his own Border Patrol agents over false claims that horseback agents “whipped” migrants with their reins, even referring four agents for discipline.[20]
While the nation faces a police recruitment shortage, Joe Biden past comments include suggesting that police officers should be trained to shoot suspects in the leg, when they feel lethal force is necessary—drawing harsh criticism from the law enforcement community.[21]
President Trump respected America’s law enforcement, reduced violent crime, and showed compassion through meaningful criminal justice reform.
During President Trump’s term, violent crime dropped over 5 percent and the murder rate decreased by over 7 percent.[22] To combat a surge of violent crime in cities, President Trump launched Operation Legend, resulting in more than 5,500 arrests.[23]
President Trump deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to Kenosha to stop violence and deployed federal agents to save a federal courthouse in Portland from rioters.[24] Additionally, President Trump signed an executive order outlining ten-year prison sentences for destroying federal property and monuments.[25]
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice provided nearly $400 million for new law enforcement hiring. President Trump backed America’s law enforcement officers and earned the endorsement of the 355,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police. [26]
President Trump signed an executive order to help prevent violence against law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and their families.[27]
To combat protect communities, the Trump administration made hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement.[28] President Trump signed the Fix NICS Act, to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals, the STOP School Violence Act, and created a Commission on School Safety to examine ways to make our schools safer.[29]
President Trump established a task force to help combat the tragedy of missing or murdered Native American women and girls.[30] Also, President Trump created the first-ever White House position focused solely on combating human trafficking.[31]
President Trump has called on Congress to immediately vote to exercise its legal authority over Washington, D.C. to restore law and order to our nation’s capital.[32]
If Marxist prosecutors betray their oaths and refuse to protect law-abiding citizens, President Trump has committed to send federal law enforcement into America’s cities to restore peace and public safety.[33]
President Trump will ask Congress to ensure that drug smugglers and traffickers can receive the death penalty.
When President Trump is back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again.
President Trump will deliver record funding to hire and retrain police officers, strengthen qualified immunity and other protections for police officers, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, put violent offenders and career criminals behind bars, and surge federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities.[34]
[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/12-m...
[2] https://xtown.la/2023/01/23/cr...
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://www.foxnews.com/us/nin...
[5] https://www.phillypolice.com/c...
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...
[7] https://nypost.com/2023/02/12/...
[8] https://www.axios.com/local/wa...
[9] https://nypost.com/2023/01/30/...
[10] https://www.rit.edu/liberalarts/sites/rit.edu.liberalarts/files/docs.pdf
[11] https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12...
[12] https://finance.yahoo.com/news...
[13] https://www.axios.com/2022/02/...
[14] https://www.thestreet.com/inve...
[15] https://www.aclu.org/news/crim...
[16] https://www.npr.org/2023/04/29...
[17] https://nationalcenter.org/pro...
[18] https://www.policeforum.org/wo...
[19] https://www.foxnews.com/us/bal...
[20] https://www.foxnews.com/politi...
[21] https://www.fox13news.com/news...
[22] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr...
[23] Ibid.
[24] https://www.politico.com/news/...
[25] https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23...
[26] https://thehill.com/homenews/c...
[27] https://www.govinfo.gov/conten...
[28] https://www.nbcnews.com/politi...
[29] https://stefanik.house.gov/201...
[30] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr...
[31] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/n...
[32] https://rumble.com/v279p8i-its...
[33] Ibid.
[34] https://www.donaldjtrump.com/a...