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Quotes
Democratic strategist James Carville, “defund the police” were “the three stupidest words in the English language.”
The conspiracies also show how many self-described liberals have grown increasingly conspiratorial and unable to distinguish fact from fiction in a chaotic and broken information ecosystem. So they make up conspiracy theories to explain it instead.”
For the third presidential contest in a row, the legacy news media — represented by newspapers, television networks, magazines, and cable news networks — spent months publishing and airing neutral to overwhelmingly negative news coverage of the former president. And for the second of those three instances, a majority of American voters largely ignored the implicit and explicit warnings of that coverage — if they saw it at all — and voted Trump into office.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Statistics for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public Affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former police officer. Retired federal senior spokesperson.
Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Produced successful state anti-crime media campaigns.
Thirty-five years of directing award-winning (50+) public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed thousands of times by every national news outlet, often with a focus on crime statistics and research. Created the first state and federal podcasting series. Produced a unique and emulated style of government proactive public relations.
Certificate of Advanced Study-The Johns Hopkins University.
Author of ”Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization” available at Amazon and additional booksellers.
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Opinion
I started this website 15 years ago after 35 years of explaining crime statistics and research to reporters, justice personnel, and others. I told myself that I would not engage in partisan politics. I would write factual articles based on data, integrate my writings with related research, and come to logical conclusions. I would stay out of politics and let the data speak for itself.
Then the defund the police movement came into full swing. I was appalled. Yes, I understood that some police “use of force” events were tragic and blatantly unlawful. Yes, I understood why many were upset.
But I also recognized that labeling over a million police employees as overly violent or discriminatory because of the actions of a few had the same fundamental elements as any other form of racism or sexism. Anyone who judges the group based on a small number of people’s misdeeds is capable of any form of prejudice.
But it goes further than that. When all hell broke loose several years ago, I knew that cops would simply leave the profession and that would have significant ramifications for public safety. Quite simply, when the crap hits the fan, it’s police officers who rush in predicated on the simple fact that they were the protectors and to take it a step further, the only people willing to take that risk. Why? because they believed that the public supported them. Take away that support and everything breaks down.
Do I disagree with the detractors and their right to protest? Nope. We live in a democratic society where citizens get to question those of us in government. But consequently, many of us understood that without cops engaged in proactive policing (the only modality with hundreds of well-done, methodologically sound research reports indicating that they reduce crime), the painting of the profession with a broad brush would have profoundly negative consequences.
Throughout all of this, Trump steadfastly supported law enforcement. The media, liberals, and progressives did not. The public understood the dynamics and the risks to their safety. They saw the unfairness of judging all based on the actions of a few. They chose Trump.
What The Research Tells Us
The collective data did not support progressive views which is ironic because they constantly call for evidence-based policies. Per replicated US Department of Justice research, cops use force “or” the threat of force in tiny percentages based on 50-60 million yearly contacts with law enforcement. The charge of out-of-control cops was not substantiated by repeated interviews of citizens encountering the police. Endless media reports suggested otherwise.
The same data and additional polling indicate widespread approval, trust, and appreciation of American policing regardless of demographics (yes, there are differences based on age, race, and political affiliation).
Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have lost thousands of police officers. Per media reports, in Philadelphia, the city is down over 1,000 officers from authorized levels. Multiple cities also reported a loss of personnel resulting in long waits for officers to arrive thus affecting crime reporting and statistics.
Per US Department of Justice data, violent crime increased by 44 percent in 2022 per the National Crime Victimization Survey, the largest increase in violence in the nation’s history. Per the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of violent crime was essentially unchanged for 2023 which means that the largest increase in violence essentially continued.
Yes, crimes reported to the police and compiled by the FBI are down (especially homicides) but the overwhelming majority of crime is not reported to the police.
The 50-year-old National Crime Victimization Survey has been acknowledged by most in the criminological community as far more accurate than the small number of crimes reported to law enforcement.
Per Gallup, fear of crime is at record levels. Per Gallup and others, crime, violence, and hard drug use were top concerns of voters. Yet to FiveThirtyEight, “Many Americans Are Convinced Crime Is Rising In The U.S. They’re Wrong.” There were dozens of similar articles. They essentially told the public they were gullible.
The Impact?
After the election and per many in the Democratic party, the working class voted for Donald Trump in overwhelming numbers. Criminology clearly states that income and crime are interrelated. It was the working class that was being hammered by crime. It was working-class Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and women that propelled data as to fear of crime. They were told that they were silly (stupid?) for believing that crime was up.
Who was the only presidential candidate saying that violence was up along with fear? Who was the presidential candidate who expressed unwavering support for cops? It would be the same person who is now president-elect who controls the US Senate and the US House of Representatives.
What Democratic And Media Pundits Are Saying After The Election
Axios: The murder of George Floyd, by a white cop, preserved on camera, jarred the nation. Horrified, millions marched, protested, demanded swift change. A movement to defund the police caught fire, despite evidence that crime rises when officers leave. “We could never wash off the stench of it,” Democratic strategist James Carville told the N.Y. Times’ Maureen Dowd for a column with the print headline, “A Wake for Woke.” Carville said “defund the police” were “the three stupidest words in the English language.” Crime rose. Eventually, most Democrats who called to defund the police scrambled to undo the political and practical damage. It was too late.
Politico: Last year, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot finished third place in her reelection fight. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler opted not to run for another term this year. Crime and disorder were partial reasons.
The Daily Beast: The “progressive” position of the Democratic Party—originally championed by FDR as a practical program for working Americans—was distorted by minority far-left extremist views on defunding the police, legalizing prostitution, open borders, sex education in schools, etc. The cultural arrogance and elitism of the Democratic Party was epitomized by the “woke” culture. Harris and the gender transition surgeries for inmates issue highlighted the disconnection. The Republican ad on this issue saying “she is for they/them and Trump is for you” was devastatingly effective.
Miami Herald: Trump won because Democrats keep telling young men they’re dangerous and don’t matter.
Newsweek: Democratic strategist James Carville, “We got beyond it,” he said. “But the image stuck in people’s minds that the Democrats wanted to defund the police, wanted to empty prisons…it created a sense of dishonor.”
The Atlantic: Biden either could not or would not forcefully distance himself from the Democratic Party’s need for performative “wokeness”—the in-group messaging used by hyper-online and overeducated progressives that consistently alienates much of the rest of the nation (emphasis added).
The Wall Street Journal: Harris argued in her campaign ads and speeches that her upbringing by a single mother in a middle-class neighborhood showed that she understood the struggles of most Americans. But Trump had plenty of ammunition—provided both by Harris and the Democratic Party itself—to argue that his opponents would ignore core pocketbook issues to cater to a minority of liberals on climate change, law enforcement and “woke” issues such as diversity. The nation’s wide education divide, in which Democrats have become the party of largely metropolitan, college-educated voters, helped Trump portray the party as distant from the concerns of the rest of America.
The Daily Beast: As for Stewart’s theory for why Democrats lost? He offered, “Democrats were mostly running against an identity that was defined for them based on a couple of months of post-George Floyd Defund the Police #MeToo Instagram posts from four years ago.”
California Dreaming-What Happens When The Most Liberal State In The Nation Rebels
Sacramento Bee: Californians passed Prop. 36 by 70% (Editor’s note, an attempt to increase certain crimes to felonies) after a successful bipartisan campaign effort among city mayors and county prosecutors. Even the state’s most powerful Democrats — Newsom and Harris included — refused to campaign vocally against Prop. 36, despite, in Newsom’s case, saying he “can’t in good conscience support it.” Pre-election polls showed that crime was a driving force for Californians across the political spectrum as they filled out their ballots – and it’s a force upon which the Trump campaign was eager to capitalize. “Make America Safe Again” became a common refrain in Trump rallies…..
Politico: Anger over ‘street chaos’ fuels ouster of another blue-city mayor. London Breed is about to join a growing club: Democratic mayors who’ve been ousted by voters fed up with their cities’ post-pandemic struggles. The incumbent mayor of San Francisco lost Tuesday’s election to Daniel Lurie, a Levi’s heir and nonprofit founder, by more than 12 points. She has led the city for over six years as it battled against surges in deaths from drug overdoses, brazen retail theft, widespread homelessness and a decline in population as newly remote workers fanned out to other parts of the state and country. In Oakland, voters forced Mayor Sheng Thao, another Democrat, out of office after just two years. Across the San Francisco Bay, Thao conceded the recall effort late Friday. But many began writing her political obituary days earlier — the culmination of years of frustration over rising crime rates.
Politico: Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price are both leaving office after losing recall elections, the latest sign of voter frustration over local crime concerns. It came just hours after Price lost her own recall vote by about 65 percent to 35 percent. Both Thao and Price are the first members of their respective offices to be recalled.
Axios: The deeper they dig into federal and state election results, some Democrats are coming to a harsh, humbling conclusion: America rejected soft liberalism. Why it matters: You see it in Hispanic men turning against Democrats … L.A. and San Francisco dumping Democrats seen as soft on crime and homelessness … white men taking to podcasts to lament word-policing and strict DEI policies … California voting to undo social justice reforms … a growing number of Democrats scolding their party for condescending political correctness. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn). tweeted Sunday that the left is “out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA. We don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them,” he added.
Conclusion
Yes, I understand that the economy and illegal immigration plus other topics propelled this election. But the bloodbath currently happening in the circular firing squad within the Democratic party over crime and justice is profound.
We were told thousands of times by the mainstream media that crime was down considerably while never mentioning the 44 percent record increase in violence by the USDOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey. Few citizens believed them. And we wonder why the media is at record lows for trust.
Look at the wording on the part of Democratic analysts, the media, and progressive critics above: arrogance and elitism, minority far-left extremist views, defund the police were the three stupidest words in the English language, Democrats wanted to defund the police, wanted to empty prisons…it created a sense of dishonor, hyper-online and overeducated progressives that consistently alienates much of the rest of the nation, Democrats have become the party of largely metropolitan, college-educated voters, the left is “out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA, We don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them.
Democrats will bounce back. They always have. Progressives have legitimate points regarding crime and policing. They want policies that are fair and equitable. They are well-funded. Most of what I read daily comes from progressive media sources. There are Pulitzer Prize-winning publications that declared their reason for being is to hold cops and the justice system accountable regardless of the worthiness of events. Their underlining presumption is that the justice system (especially law enforcement) is fundamentally nefarious. They are not going away.
But the Democratic party isn’t stupid. Their traditional backbone is the working class. Maybe they will learn that endlessly criticizing “all” cops for “all” things is not in their best interest. Holding criminal offenders accountable is something that most people want and need if we want support for our democracy. If people feel that justice through accountability is dead, they will take matters into their own hands, the reason why there are 300-400 million firearms in private hands. A lack of faith in the justice system is why cities are awash in violence, regardless of statistics saying that reported crime is down.
Is it possible that we can collectively fight for what’s fair and equitable while promoting public safety without over-the-top, misdirected criticism of the justice system and citizen perceptions? Can we do it without arrogance and elitism? We shall see.
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