As crime rates spike across America, Democrats in Washington have realized that their anti-police rhetoric has begun to cause serious problems, Axios reported.
Since coming into power after the 2020 election, many radical leftists—particularly those in large, blue-run urban regions—have doubled-down on their calls to “defund the police.”
As a result, homicides rose, on average, by about 30% last year, and they already have increased another 24% so far this year, according to a New York Times analysis.
With the prospects of another violent summer ahead, Democrats worry that their Republican rivals, who successfully capitalized on concerns over crime to gain House seats in last year’s election, may make up serious ground in the 2022 midterms.
Along with the New York Times, the Washington Post has also published pieces in recent weeks warning Democrats of the effect of their radical rhetoric on upcoming elections.
Former New York City police Capt. Eric Adams’s success in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary race has demonstrated the changing tides of public opinion.
Adams—a 22-year law-enforcement veteran who also would be the Big Apple’s second black mayor—is projected to win the primary after campaigning on a platform that opposed defunding the NYPD.
President Joe Biden has received much of the blame for rising crime—especially among Republicans, who have attacked him for his sympathies with the “defund” movement.
Biden and other Democrat leaders are urging Congress to pass the George Floyd Policing Act.
The bill would ban basic physical self-defense maneuvers, such as choke-holds; prohibit no-knock warrants; and make it easier to punish officers.
Nevertheless, Democrat operatives have realized that such rhetoric could hurt them in the 2022 midterms, and have advised candidates to tone down their language.
