With violent crime on the rise, the past three years have been increasingly perilous for law enforcement officers.
In honor of National First Responders Day on Monday, it’s important to protect the brave men and women preserving public safety by sounding the alarm on the policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which have endangered law enforcement and created a high violent-crime rate, with murder rates peaking in 2022 and currently remaining higher than pre-COVID-19 levels.
The FBI stated that nearly 200 law enforcement officers were killed while on duty from 2021 to 2023, setting the highest rate for officers feloniously killed within a consecutive three-year period, compared with data from the past two decades.
Since 2020, left-leaning politicians have advocated for the defunding of police, for open borders, and for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements that directly jeopardize law and order within the United States.
Harris publicly supported defunding the police during the 2020 nationwide riots that followed the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Before becoming Biden’s running mate, she claimed “defund the police movements rightly question police budgets.”
Dozens of cities—among them Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles—defunded their local police departments after the 2020 Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots. The cities later reversed themselves and increased law enforcement budgets after seeing a predictable increase in crime.
Under the leadership of Harris as border czar, the illegal-alien crime rate skyrocketed, in direct correlation with the masses of unvetted illegal aliens who entered the U.S. since 2021. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 55,106 illegal aliens with a criminal background, or 33,170 more arrests than in fiscal years 2017 to 2020.
Not only do illegal aliens commit a variety of crimes, such as assaulting police officers, but rogue left-wing district attorneys often fail to prosecute criminal aliens. New York City Police Department officers protested earlier this year against the New York City District Attorney’s Office for releasing a group of illegal aliens who assaulted police officers in a brutal attack in Times Square. The DA’s office later indicted all seven individuals involved in the attack following the protests.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered a frighteningly high rate of criminal illegal aliens, leading to 1,084 illegal-alien assault charge convictions in the just-ended fiscal year 2024 alone. That compared with 299 convictions in 2020, so our nation has suffered a stark increase in crimes committed by foreign criminals.
DEI is another possible factor for the increased crime rate. The Biden-Harris administration encouraged the redesign of law enforcement training and requirements to be more “inclusive,” placing radical racial ideology above public safety.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, agencies have adopted DEI principles that have transformed their intended purpose, often redirecting public resources for the advancement of a leftist agenda. The Department of Justice, for example, stated in its Strategic Plan for Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that the DOJ’s goals are based on “implementing effective practices to recruit and hire a qualified, diverse workforce in mission-critical occupations.”
Many law enforcement agencies have since replaced prior requirements for recruiting and training police officers with DEI principles highlighted in the DOJ’s strategic plan and have seen a subsequent increase in unqualified personnel.
These DEI requirements place first responders in danger and in some cases have severe consequences.
One example is the Los Angeles Police Department, which has taken a massive hit from DEI policies. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated a top priority for the LAPD was to remove “obstacles” for new police recruits in order to advance DEI in law enforcement, signaling an easier pathway to become a law enforcement officer.
Deadly shootings involving LAPD officers were up 142.9% from 2020, according to the LAPD, but that’s not the only type of crime on the rise. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Golden State’s crime rate has increased significantly, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
With the presidential election underway, polls show decreasing crime is a priority for all Americans. A Pew research poll found that 46% of registered Democrats and 76% of registered Republicans believe addressing the issue of violent crime is “very important” when electing the next president of the United States.
Public policies determine the way forward for our nation, but some of the leading policies of the Left—such as DEI, open borders, and anti-law enforcement efforts—have neglected the safety of first responders and put American communities at a greater risk for crime.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Brandy Perez.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
As the article points out up front, this has been going on since most, if not all the Democrat controlled states, passed and enacted so-called “justice reform”. Which was centered around defunding the police, reducing or eliminating bail altogether, downgrading numerous crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and in states with Soros bankrolled DA’s, not even bothering to charge criminals at all. No matter how many times they repeat offend. Is it really any wonder that police have become demoralized and have resigned in droves, as they are neither allowed to do their jobs properly and also face the risk of being prosecuted themselves, if they actually try to enforce the law? Recruitment of new police is way down for obvious reasons. Who would want to be a cop today in a town or city where the police would face a greater chance of be prosecuted for doing their jobs, than the repeat criminals that view the current environment as a free pass?
That crime has increased, and people feel less secure is a natural byproduct of the left’s agenda being enacted. Look at your city and state legislatures and your Governors for creating this mess. The federal government, under any modern Democrat administration is just going to sit back and laugh, as this is the environment the Democrats need to justify taking more and more power and control.
If you want things to change, then you need to reverse everything the Democrats have done at the local and state level since 2020. The only way to do that is to throw every Democrat in office out. One way or another. Otherwise, the trend is the situation will continue to look more and more like how every other socialist paradise looks.
Now Biden calls Trump supporters “garbage.” Now that’s rich coming from the worst President in American history. Does anyone take him seriously anymore? A man whose brain is so gone that he slurs his words together to the point of incoherence should not be considered in any way credible.
Anybody with a brain would ask why Democrats would implement policies that have a 100% probability of producing bad outcomes. But you need to look at their broader long range goal. The democrats want chaos, they want to destroy the nuclear family, they want to change our country from capitalism based to socialism. When you understand the lefts long term agenda, the policies they implement absolutely fit right in line with that strategy.
Time to wake up America! The left wants to destroy this country.
Harris supported the Minnesota Freedom Fund to bail out the anarchists during the 2020 riots while also advocating to defund the police. She is someone who can’t be trusted and should not be POTUS. The Democratic elites did all of us a disservice by anointing her instead of allowing the voters to choose a successor to Biden. They are the threat to democracy.
Officers killed in the line of duty by criminals. But it is the criminal who gets the street, square or whatever named after him and is practically elevated to sainthood. Until that changes nothing will.
This article gives a profound statement, as risk to first responders (among our most valued citizens) has sharply increased from the effects of “democrat” non-leadership – especially in urban areas where they have “exquisitely” mismanaged law enforcement issues.
On the lighter side, I just received an emailed article from “The Spectator World” (a liberal rag) entitled “Forget Vibes. Trump Is Still the Underdog”. Though it’s true that we haven’t won until we win, I nonetheless look forward to briefly reviewing todays delusion from those “editorial democrats” who so conspicuously detest democracy.
This is what democrats do. They protect their criminal buddies.
Obviously, to allow tens of millions into the country illegally on top of the tens of millions already here means there is an ulterior motive be it gaming state representation (population = number of House reps) or to create a new voter base. The fact that it comes with a human cost of American lives proves Democrats think you, the American people, are not just garbage but expendable garbage!
The American public has allowed this, and, they pay all the costs. When they change their focus and demand, not take back, their rights, change must happen. Until them, stop complaining and with no action..
Support The Police — that is a good idea.It reflects a respect for thinking right,doing things right,and living in a way that makes life possible actually.. Without law enforcement where would the foundation of civilization be? It would not be able to hold anything together for very long. The foundation of civilization has law enforcement as a vital part of it’s structure. Praise for Brandy Perez for presenting this information in this article it is appreciated.The last paragraph provides a good picture of what is going on and provides a list of things that need to be fixed in order to have an honorable system based on good, common sense and morally right ideals for the Nation.The crime situation needs to be attacked and defeated and those of us here in the United States of America who understand truth, understand Liberty and understand intelligent thinking will need to do whatever is required to have victory for law and order. It should part of the sense of purpose people with courage and responsibility have in their hearts and souls.
Hannity on FOX this week brought up there are assassination teams after Trump because of Democrat rhetoric. Both assassination attempts have been by white US citizens & one was only 20-years old, so I find it hard to believe that these two can be considered members of Hit Squads. Hannity is like Chicken Little & the sky is falling!