The New York Times observed that one year after the “defund the police” movement, police departments are seeing their funds return. What a shocker that is.
The New York Times, of course, still focused heavily on the perspectives of “defund” activists in Dallas, Texas. But it can’t hide the real issue here — a police-defunded Dallas saw its homicides increase 25% last year, a trend similar to that in many cities across the country. Residents, including (or perhaps especially) black residents, are concerned about crime. Dallas, as with New York City and Los Angeles, among others, has decided to listen to them and ignore the activists.
Dallas reversed many of its funding cuts “with little fanfare,” as the New York Times noted, and the city has reoriented its focus to “hot spot” policing, focusing on the select few areas that “contain a large amount” of the city’s crime. This has helped reduce homicides and violent crime in Dallas — another huge shocker.
But not all cities have done the right thing. Portland, which this past weekend saw 13 shootings in 28 hours, has had 69 homicides this year. With nearly three months left in the year, it is almost certain to exceed its modern homicide record, 71, set in 1987. The murder rate in the Rose City is expected to increase yet again this year compared to 2020.
None of this is surprising. Thanks to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and then the lawlessness that cities allowed to take place as Black Lives Matter protests turned into violent riots, 2020 saw the largest single-year murder rate increase since the FBI started tracking the crime. Many Democratic-run cities chose to obey anti-police activists rather than protect their citizens. They stripped the police of funds while refusing to back their officers publicly, leading to widespread resignations from police departments.
Of course, homicides continued to rise, and many of these cities have had to reverse course. Pandering to anti-police extremists, it turns out, doesn’t stop violence or gang shootings. Dallas has recognized this. Minneapolis, which is holding a vote to eliminate and replace its police department, has not.
We can hope that more cities will follow Dallas’s lead, but just as in Minneapolis, only residents of these cities can choose to change their paths.
