Four liberal leaders are looking to change their tune on topics Democrats are constantly railroaded over — immigration, the war in Israel, and crime — but they are facing an uphill battle to do so as lower-ranking progressive officials stand in their way.
In Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, and California, mayors and governors are working to offset increases in crime that stemmed from old legislation by sponsoring new bills to tackle the topic. However, left-wing lawmakers on the city councils or within the states’ legislatures are pushing back on any changes they believe will prevent comprehensive criminal justice reform.
With 2023 ending with a 39% rise in violent crime in places such as Washington, D.C., and motor vehicle and retail thefts becoming popular activities in these Democratic-run cities, leaders must now not only fight statistics but members of their own party who are throwing up roadblocks on the path to creating any chance of change.
Other topics such as the border crisis and the war between Israel and Hamas have divided Democratic politics, as well, particularly in areas affected by the influx of immigrants.
J.B. Pritzker
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) criticized a Chicago City Council resolution passed on Wednesday that called for an end to violence in Gaza and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. He said he was “disappointed” that the resolution did not include more language on the Hamas terrorist attacks against the Jewish state on Oct. 7.
“I was disappointed that no consideration was given to the women who were raped by Hamas, fighters that crossed over into Israel, kidnapped people. The deaths that were caused by those terrorists were not acknowledged, and honestly, that the City Council, if they’re going to talk about the challenge of war in the Middle East, you got to make sure you include all of the perspectives. They did not do that,” Pritzker said on Thursday during an unrelated event at the South Shore Cultural Center.
Mayor Brandon Johnson cast the tiebreaking vote on the council’s resolution, allowing it to pass narrowly. Chicago became the largest city in the nation to pass such a resolution, which does not affect foreign policy and is merely symbolic.
The resolution passed during a wave of shootings and crimes in Chicago’s neighborhoods and on the same day that three high school students were shot, one fatally, causing many to criticize the mayor for ignoring the violence and crime war raging in his own backyard.
Pritzker’s criticisms of Johnson’s administration and the Chicago City Council have grown in recent months over the state of the city’s immigrant crisis, as well. Since August 2022, more than 35,000 immigrants have arrived in the Windy City on 608 buses arriving from Texas. The city has announced it is at almost maximum capacity and does not plan to build any more shelters for immigrants. Johnson and Pritzker have been at odds over how to approach the influx of immigrants, particularly after the governor blasted the mayor for not having “moved fast enough” to set up the camps the city proposed in September.
Muriel Bowser
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser is supporting an omnibus crime package that would increase pretrial detentions for juveniles, increase penalties for existing crimes, create new ones, and roll back some of the provisions in the district’s police reform bill.
However, several councilmembers have expressed concerns with the bill regarding the police provisions and the establishment of drug-free zones. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has often pushed back against Bowser’s crime prevention bills, particularly the ones involving juvenile pretrial detentions and prosecution.
One of the more controversial aspects of the bill includes rollbacks on certain policies that the D.C. Council has passed in recent years, incorporating policies included in Bowser’s ACT Now Act. The Secure DC Omnibus would allow officers to review bodycam footage as they are writing police reports, with the exception being cases in which an officer is accused of using serious force or killing someone. It would also loosen restrictions on neck restraints and could not require police officers to inform criminals that they are being recorded by body-worn cameras.
Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen, who is facing a recall effort for his perceived lack of dedication to curb crime in Washington, expressed concerns over the police “rollback on some of the transparency and accountability for police misconduct against the public.”
Gavin Newsom
As California counties continue to suffer from a severe uptick in retail theft, prosecutors and business leaders have long criticized the state’s Proposition 47, which classifies nonviolent property crimes that do not exceed $950 in value as misdemeanors. They call the legislation “toothless” and say it is to blame for the rise in shoplifting and other thefts.
In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced a crime bill addressing retail theft that would propose new penalties for people who steal items and then try to resell them and also allow officers to arrest those suspected of crimes even if the officer did not witness the crime being committed.
It remains to be seen how Democrats in the state legislature will respond to the crime bill, particularly the provisions involving law enforcement. Democrats have split support over some of Newsom’s bills in the past, such as the high-profile bill increasing prison sentences for those convicted of child sex trafficking and reclassifying the crime as a “serious felony.”
Democrats had split over the bill on whether victims would be vulnerable to prosecution and whether the “three strikes law” should be broadened. It was the latest display in a series of Democratic policies that have split for those who tout supporting women but are resistant to increasing the prison population, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Eric Adams
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been thrust into the spotlight due to the growing number of immigrants in the city and the rise in criminal activity on the streets, particularly motor vehicle theft and assaults.
Adams most recently went against the Democratic-led City Council and vetoed legislation that would require New York Police Department officers to log basic information for all public interactions, putting him in an unlikely agreement with the state Republican Party chairman. The council overturned Adams’s veto on Jan. 30, passing the How Many Stops Act into law.
The mayor argued the bill would make the city less safe by slowing down police activity and would not help the city combat violent crime. Republicans and the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the largest police union in the nation, agreed with Adams.
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Adams also went against progressive Democrats on Thursday, arguing that the nation needs to reexamine its deportation laws concerning immigrants who commit acts of violence after news broke that several immigrants attacked NYPD officers outside a shelter near Times Square.
He has recently found an unlikely adversary in City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who led the council in overturning Adams’s veto of a bill banning the use of solitary confinement in jail, according to the New York Times. She has openly criticized his approach to handling the influx of immigrants as “inhumane,” despite the city spending millions of dollars attempting to house and provide resources for asylum-seekers. She has also blasted the mayor’s decision to impose a 60-day shelter stay limit for immigrants, a move several Democratic-led cities such as Chicago have made due to the large number of immigrants entering the area.
