wave of violence in the United States
Republicans blame Biden
By Roland Peters
2/4/2022 10:06 am
Violent crime in the United States has skyrocketed in the past two years. Republicans sense an emotional issue for November’s congressional elections. The Democrats fear a debacle anyway.
From the point of view of the opposition Republicans, it sounds pretty stringent and too simple not to want to anchor it in the minds of voters until the congressional elections in November: The Democrats and President Joe Biden are jointly responsible for the wave of violence that is sweeping the USA together with the pandemic has captured. And this is related to “Defund the Police”. Across the country, there have been more gun deaths than before in two years. Demands to cut police money had emerged during anti-racism protests after George Floyd died below a white police officer’s knee in 2020.
The left wing of the Democrats, in particular, would like to put some of the well over $100 billion a year spent on policing in the United States on social projects and education instead. The argument: The security forces are responsible for things they simply have no idea about. They struggle with structural poverty, with acute psychological problems in people who no longer know what to do, and with the homeless. Even if jobs, education and youth programs reduce crime, it takes time and is not as visible as patrolling police officers in modern gear.
Distinguished himself as a senator in the 1990s as “tough on crime”: US President Joe Biden.
(Photo: REUTERS)
Such claims are currently even less negotiable. In the first year of the pandemic, the number of deaths from firearms across the country rose at its fastest rate since the survey began in 1960. In 2020 it was 30 percent more than in 2019 and at least 21,570 people died. In more than two-thirds of the country’s 40 most populous cities, gun deaths rose in 2021. There was a new high in 9 cities. In New York City, the country’s most populous city, there are currently 53 percent more deaths than in 2019. Five police officers were shot dead there in January alone.
The reasons for the violence are emotional trauma from the pandemic, poverty, existential fears and racism. Added to this is the fact that the weapons can be obtained at all. Given the numbers, it’s no surprise that crime and safety are among the most pressing problems for Americans include; by jobs, public health and the healthcare system. Even if the number of deaths is still a third below the value of 1991, security is one of the key issues for the congressional elections in November.
Bleak prospects for Democrats
Biden and the Democrats fear a disaster for the autumn given the president’s unpopularity and the political truism that the opposition is taking seats from the government party in the midterm elections. Voters could pull the legislative teeth out of the White House and the party. Biden is struggling for approval, especially in the suburbs that are so important. The gubernatorial election in Virginia received a lot of attention in November because a Republican had won there. He had also won over Biden voters on the crime-fighting issue, outperforming his competitor. From the point of view of the Democrats, this should not be repeated. Now Biden has taken a full day and visited New York City. The visit is a clear signal to the country: the President and the new Mayor Eric Adams, Democrat and Black, are talking about measures to combat gun violence and crime. Both have always been against “Defund the Police”.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (left) and US President Joe Biden at an event on the fight against gun violence.
(Photo: imago images/UPI Photo)
Adams also won his election in November 2021 because he promised to make the city’s streets safer and reform the police force. Adams is a former police officer and had prevailed in the Democratic primary against more left-wing competitors. “I’ve never been in a neighborhood with a high crime rate where someone would have asked for fewer police,” he said during the election campaign. “That’s why I was against the Defund movement from the start.”
In New York City, a significant reduction in the budget would be difficult to convey anyway, despite the progressive attitude of the population. The memories of the rampant crime that swept through the city in the 1970s and was only curbed in the 1990s with the help of zero-tolerance tactics are still too present. Rising levels of violent crime touch on fears of a throwback to that era.
Mayor Adams has been in office since January. Among other things, he wants to give judges more opportunities to arrest suspects before the court hearing, wants solitary confinement to be used more often in prisons and has reintroduced a civilian special unit. Overall, more police officers should be present on the streets. Adams has also asked the federal government to ban automatic firearms and make gun smuggling a federal crime.
More trust in Republicans
The accusation by the Republicans that “Defund the Police” is partly responsible for the increase in numbers is also on shaky ground: there are demands from the Democrats and civil rights groups, but little has been implemented since the death of George Floyd; and if so, then primarily symbolically. Around 20 percent more Americans think Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be able to reduce crime, according to a poll by the Wall Street Journal in December.
“Polymer80” components for a Glock semi-automatic pistol in the US state of California. No verification or registration is required to make a purchase.
(Photo: REUTERS)
Because of the crime problem, $350 billion was earmarked in Congress’ $1.9 trillion Covid emergency package for public safety in the country last year. But Republicans are pointing to their political rivals because of the continuing rise in gun deaths and other crimes. “Biden and the Democrats have failed on crime,” a spokesman for the Republican party leadership said of the violence, referring to the high death toll from guns in the cities of Chicago, Atlanta and Oakland. “Biden’s visit to New York is too little and too late.”
The Democrats will try until November to blame the Republicans for the current situation. Accordingly, crime is increasing because the firearms laws are too loose, which makes police work more difficult and dangerous. Republicans are almost universally blocking tougher laws. Nevertheless, such an argument is difficult to convey when you are in power yourself.
How to deal with the gun problem in general could become more explosive, should the Supreme Court decidethat states should not ban carrying guns in public. In New York City, this has been the case for a century. There is also a new phenomenon that exploits a loophole in the law: so-called ghost guns. They don’t officially exist.
Buyers order the ghost weapons in unregistered individual parts online or in stores and then assemble them themselves. Last year, New York police confiscated at least 200 such weapons, up from 145 in 2020 and none prior to 2018. “The exponential growth is alarming”, said a spokesman for the agency: “We assume that the numbers will continue to rise.” According to the US Department of Justice, police officers confiscated a total of 8,712 ghost guns nationwide in 2020.
In Los Angeles, since the beginning of the pandemic, up to half of all weapons confiscated have been in crime been such ghost guns. Most owners should not have carried a regular registered firearm. The police and politicians must also deal with this take care of in the future.