Trump and Pelosi Declare A Violent Crime Crisis in The US

 

Highlights

Thanks to Speaker Pelosi and President Trump, we have confirmation from the right and left that we have a violent crime crisis in the United States.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention 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 advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Aspiring drummer.

Article

“There is no violent crime problem in this country.” “Violent crime is not increasing, it’s decreasing” “We have never lived in safer times.” “You are fear mongering.”

The comments above are just a few of the responses to what I write when addressing violence. There are major, well-funded organizations and websites promoting these views offering statistics “proving” that violence is decreasing while concurrently advocating for a 50 percent decrease in the prison population, Cut Fifty.

I assume that if advocates admit that violence is a problem, they fear losing momentum for cutting prison beds.

Well, it’s seems that the question is moot based on positions and recent statements offered by leading Democrats and Republicans.

The Numbers

The number of persons who had been victims of violent crime is up 17 percent from 2015, Crime in America. There are a variety of statistics indicating growing crime numbers and rates since 2015, Crime in America.

I believe that what I offer in Violent And Property Crime Rates In The US is a neutral compilation of data from multiple sources suggesting that we have a growing problem of violence since 2015, and possibly before that.

Yet whenever I offer data from the FBI, The National Crime Survey or Gallup, there is an endless number of advocates and criminologists who cry foul.

“There is no increase in violence in the United States,” they insist.

Background Commentary

“We think there is a lot of misinformation on crime and crime rates,” Inimai Chettiar, director of the justice program at the Brennan Center, previously told me.

“Certain politicians put out all sorts [of claims] on crime that not only tend to alarm the public, but also bring out really bad and unnecessary policy changes,” she added, citing mass incarceration and an immigration crackdown. “Before we’re even having those policy debates about what needs to be done to solve the problem, we need to make sure whether there actually is a problem or not.” Vox

“It’s easy to distort the FBI’s numbers to work up a public frenzy, but the facts are consistent. The crime armageddon has not arrived; the mobs can hang up their pitchforks. By focusing our attention on fake boogeymen, we are turning our attention away from the real problems. We don’t need more fear-mongering or the “lock ’em up” policies of old; we need sound policy solutions for the few struggling cities and areas experiencing crime upticks,” Washington Examiner

Trump Declares A National Violent Crime Emergency

President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to access funds Congress refused to appropriate for his border wall will unleash a legal war that could bog down the project for months or years, Politico reports. Immigrant rights advocates, property rights activists, environmentalists, Democratic lawmakers and state officials are signaling plans for lawsuits to block the president from what they have denounced as an unconstitutional end-run around the usual budget process.

The declaration is partially based on the president’s wish to stop criminals, drugs and human trafficking from entering the country. Mexico and Central America have some of the world’s highest violent crime rates, Council On Foreign Affairs.

There are twenty-eight active emergency declarations, CNN. There are more within recent decades.

Whether or not you buy the President’s assertions is meaningless, I’m merely pointing out the positions and justifications of both parties.

Pelosi Declares A National Violent Crime Emergency

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday issued a warning to Republicans poised to support President Trump‘s decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border: the next Democratic president, she said, could do the same on guns.

“A Democratic president can declare emergencies, as well,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “So the precedent that the president is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans.”

Pelosi noted that Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 students and faculty dead. She argued that the real national emergency is not illegal border crossings, but gun violence in the U.S.

“Let’s talk about today: The one-year anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America,” Pelosi said. “That’s a national emergency. Why don’t you declare that emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would.

“But a Democratic president can do that,” The Hill.

Conclusions

Violent And Property Crime Rates In The US  doesn’t offer consistent, unanimous conclusions regarding increasing violent crime from the three principle sources for every recent year, but the collective data suggest that that violence is a growing problem.

And critics are correct when they say that prior to 2014-2015, there was an almost consistent and considerable decrease in crime for twenty years.

But there are endless news reports from some cities and states that violence is increasing. There are a variety of polls stating that Americans believe that crime and violence is a major problem, Crime in America.

We are losing cops and recruitment is becoming difficult. Officers are making fewer stops and some suggest that this is hampering crime control efforts, Crime in America.

But thanks to Speaker Pelosi and President Trump, we now have confirmation from the right and left that we have a violence crisis, however they choose to define it.

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