The Council on Criminal Justice has released their mid-year crime report for 2023. It shows two major things: Homicides appear to be declining nationally, but the trends in individual cities are vastly different. In the first six months of 2023, homicides were down 9 percent overall in 30 American cities compared to the first six months of 2022. But while 20 cities had lower homicide rates, 10 cities had more homicides in 2023 than 2022. The variation between cities ranged from homicides being down 59 percent in Raleigh, NC to being up 133 percent in Lincoln, NE.
Why are some cities continuing to see increases in violence while the general trend is downward? The answer is that while many cities have increased funding to police and cracked down on gangs, some continue to cling to liberalism’s worst ideas about crime, punishment, and individual accountability.
Washington, D.C. is one of the cities in the Council report where homicides continue to rise—up 11 percent over the first half of 2022. In recent years, the nation’s capital has defunded the police—twice—and attempted to lower penalties for serious acts of violence, including carjacking, which has led to a dramatic increase in carjackings in recent years.
In vetoing the bill that sought to ease the penalty for carjacking and other offenses, Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a strong message: “This bill does not make us safer,” Mayor Bowser said. “Any time there’s a policy that reduces penalties, I think it sends the wrong message.”
It didn’t matter: The D.C. Council voted to override her veto, and took bipartisan majorities in Congress to keep the law from going into effect. But the message Mayor Bowser was worried about has been received, and homicides and carjackings continue to rise unabated.
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There have already been 13 murders in just the first five days of August; children as young as 12 have been arrested for carjackings, now elevated for their sixth straight year.
About 700 miles to the west, Chicago, IL seemed to be on mixed footing to start the year. Homicides have declined about 8 percent compared to last year, though motor vehicle thefts are up 130 percent compared to the same timespan. But Chicago’s new Mayor Brandon Johnson is determined to let ideology trump citizen safety in both word and action. In recent weeks, Mayor Johnson has insisted on calling riotous mobs of teens “large gatherings,” though Chicago teens have looted stores, smashed cars and windows, and left behind guns at the scene. Post-modern word games aside, this is clearly an attempt to deflect blame for criminal acts from the criminal actor to something else—so called “root causes,” inequality, or society itself.
It’s a commitment Mayor Johnson’s transition team doubled down on in their recent report entitled “A Blueprint for Creating a More Just and Vibrant City for All”. The report’s public safety section calls for less policing by the Chicago Police Department and more non-CPD resources to be used whenever possible. It also called for eliminating both the ShotSpotter detection system and the city’s gang database.
These are stupid suggestions for a city that suffered more than 3,200 fatal and non-fatal shootings in 2022 and has one of the largest and longest gang histories in the United States. Importantly, the report goes to great lengths to lay the “exceptional levels of violence” at the feet of colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and urban renewal. How these led to a near doubling in homicides from 2014 to 2016 is not explained. But what is clear is this: For Mayor Johnson, violent crime is not the fault of the criminal offender.
Another 2,100 miles to the west, people are beginning to push back. The Oakland, CA chapter of the NAACP recently made headlines after urging local leaders to declare a “state of emergency” over the impact of surging violence on minority communities. They specifically called out “failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police” as well as the failure to “prosecute people who murder and commit life threatening serious crimes.” Bad ideas in Oakland have contributed to a cycle of violence that has trapped low-income residents in places they feel unsafe. The NAACP chapter there is demanding accountability, both of the offenders and of the politicians who placate them.
Ideas have consequences, and rising crime is a public policy choice. Fidelity to liberalism’s worst impulses on crime have made our most vulnerable communities less safe. Residents are beginning to demand better, and maybe, finally, a few of these bad ideas will find themselves on the ash heap of history.
Joshua Crawford is the Director of Criminal Justice Initiatives at the Georgia Center for Opportunity.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.