Written by William Hekman
Following an already crime-riddled 2020, 12 cities broke homicide records in 2021. Cities like Rochester, New York broke a 30-year record on November 11th when it recorded its 71st homicide of 2021, breaking the previous record of 69 in 1991. The captain of the Rochester Police Department said, “We’re extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it’s worse than a war zone around here lately.”
Rochester joins Philadelphia, Toledo, Columbus, Baton Rouge, Austin, Louisville, St. Paul, Portland, Tucson, and Albuquerque in cities that broke homicide records in 2021. There is one common denominator in all of this: all of these cities are run by Democratic mayors. Philadelphia has already recorded more homicides than both New York City and Los Angeles, with Philadelphia recording 521 homicides as of December 6th. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said, “ “It’s terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It’s just crazy. It’s just crazy and this needs to stop”. A lot can can be attributed to the rise in homicides, such as bail reform and a number of police retirements following the Defund the Police movement in 2020. According to the Police Executive Research Forum, there was a 45% increase in police retirement rate and a 20% increase in resignations from officers in 2020-2021 compared to 2019. Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw criticized the liberal policies that have lead to the increase in homicides, “ America’s most beautiful cities are indeed being ruined by liberal policies. The criminals laugh in the back of a police car because they know that they are going to be out the next day back to committing crimes. This is a problem for people who actually pay taxes who live there.” Two other cities are on pace to also break records, Milwaukee is 12 short of breaking its 2020 record of 190, and Minneapolis is only six away from breaking the 1995 record of 97.
Crime has become a massive problem in the United States. Murders jumped 30% nationally compared to 2019, the largest single-year jump in 60 years. So long as Democrats hold onto these mayor seats and push radical policies regarding crime, these cities will only get worse.
Photo Cred: Philadelphia Police Department
