NEW MURDER DATA SHOULD PUT BRAKES ON OBAMA’S ‘CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM’

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanue: All the vitriol thrown at cops has put them in a "fetal" position

Editorial

Investor’s Business Daily
January 21, 2016

War On Cops: President Obama says his "criminal justice reform" — doublespeak for pardoning criminals and investigating cops — is gaining bipartisan support. New FBI crime data should stop the movement in its tracks.

Last fall, we argued that Obama's war on police, prosecuted with the help of his Black Lives Matter goons, sparked a "national crime wave." "Violent criminals are getting the upper hand as the 'Ferguson effect' takes hold in cities across the country," we noted. "Less-aggressive policing has emboldened the bad guys, leading to a nationwide spike in murder.

"Officers fear violating softer new use-of-force and arrest policies, pushed on cities by the Obama Justice Department, will open them up to civil-rights prosecution. Many have backed off patrols and stops in dangerous urban areas as a result.

"The result: Year-over-year homicide rates are up 76% in Milwaukee; 60% in St. Louis; 56% in Baltimore; 44% in Washington, D.C.; 22% in New Orleans; 20% in Chicago; 20% in Kansas City; and 17% in Dallas. Single-digit rises have been seen in New York and other cities."

Soon after, FBI Director James Comey indicated that spiking murder rates may be partly due to the "Ferguson effect" — police reluctance to carry out their duties over fear of being investigated for abuse or discrimination, or shot by angry thugs in the line of duty.

Police chiefs echoed his concerns, prompting the attorney general to gather major police chiefs and mayors together in Washington for a crime summit. It was supposed to be a closed meeting, no press allowed.

But a Washington Post reporter snuck in and recorded Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel complaining that all the vitriol thrown at cops had put them in a "fetal" position. Obama's former chief of staff said they were backing off crime in gang-infested areas of his city.

Obama pooh-poohed the city-by-city reports of climbing murder rates, arguing that there wasn't any aggregate data to show a national trend. But now we have the national data from the FBI. It confirms that the U.S. murder rate shot up 6.2% in the first half of 2015 from a year earlier. The spike reverses a three-year downtrend.

Overall violent crime — murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault — rose almost 2%, in contrast to a nearly 5% drop in the comparable period of 2014. Violent crime rose in all but one of the nation's four regions, the FBI said, and all but two city groupings.

The bureau had no explanation for the alarming reversal in the long-term trend of good news on the crime front. The Justice Department was quick to say, "It is too early to draw any long-term conclusions."

But even the mainstream media drew a connection to complaints from police chiefs. "The statistics provide some numerical support for assertions," the Associated Press reported.

Just two months ago, syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page slammed Investor's Business Daily editorials for feeding a "myth" about a war on cops, citing our September "War on Police Sparks National Crime Wave" piece.

In his column, "'War on Cops' More Myth than Menace," Page argued that IBD and other "conservative pundits" were falsely promoting "the idea that there's a 'war on cops.'"

"Their message: Blame 'Black Lives Matter' first, then blame President Barack Obama and anyone else who protests the killings of unarmed African-Americans, because they are part of the 'war on cops' led by the Black Lives Matter movement."

If liberal pundits and politicians want to stop soaring crime rates, they should stop vilifying cops. And they should start speaking out against the Black Lives Matter race-mongers and their "criminal-justice reforming" patrons in the White House.