Democrat Leaders Are Failing Their Cities

BIDEN AND DEMOCRAT MAYORS’ NEGLIGENCE

Today, Biden addressed the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) and discussed the “priorities of America’s cities in 2022.”
Last year, Democrat-run cities saw historic spikes in crime, surges in COVID cases, and the crumbling of education through school closures and divisive critical race theory.

DEMOCRAT MAYORS HAVE DELIVERED CRIME, COVID MANDATES, AND SCHOOL CLOSURES

In 2021, violent crime spiked across the country, with fourteen major Democrat-run cities setting all-time high homicide records, including:
- Philadelphia, with over 550 killings, breaking its 1990 record.
- Austin, with 89 killings, the highest number since Austin police began recording over six decades ago.
In America’s three largest cities – all Democrat-run – roughly 50 percent of Black residents are already banned from going to restaurants, bars, and movie theaters because of vaccine mandates.
- In Chicago, 49 percent of Black residents are essentially banned from restaurants, bars, and gyms.
- In New York City, 46 percent of Black residents are essentially banned from restaurants, bars, and gyms.
- In Los Angeles, 48 percent of Black residents are essentially banned from restaurants, bars, and gyms.
Democrat-run cities across the country, following Biden’s lead, continue to prioritize teachers’ union bosses over the needs of students, with children being forced back to remote learning as a result.
- In Democrat-run Chicago, the city’s teachers’ union voted to refuse to show up for in-person work until their “conditions” were met – leaving more than 340,000 Chicago students in limbo.
- These closures and caving to union bosses will only exacerbate the mental, behavioral, and emotional health crises already gripping American children.

2021 WAS A RECORD SETTING YEAR FOR CRIME IN MANY CITIES, AND DEMOCRAT POLICIES ARE TO BLAME

Democrat-run cities experienced historic crime last year not seen in decades:
- Chicago, with its deadliest year in a quarter century.
- Atlanta, with 158 homicides, the highest number in over three decades.
- Oakland, with 148 killings, the highest in 15 years.
In addition to the surge in lethal crimes, there has been an uptick in brazen carjackings and organized retail “smash-and-grab” robberies.
Among radical Democrat policies at fault for the surge in crime are:
- Defundingthe police.
- Vaccine mandates that force first responders off the job in states like New York, California, and Illinois.
- Weakened bail policies.
- No prosecutionsfor brazen criminal thieves.
- Downgradingcrimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
- Anti-police rhetoric.
Despite a record number of city-wide homicides, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner claims the city does not “have a crisis of crime.”
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams called Manhattan’s new District Attorney Alvin Bragg “Team Public Safety” despite Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies.
- Bragg recently released a memo calling to downgrade a number of crimes – including resisting arrest.

POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT BLAME THE CRIME SURGE ON RADICAL DEMOCRAT POLICIES

Law enforcement professionals lay the blame squarely on failed Democrat policies:
- Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueve: "And it’s people … They live in this ‘woke palace’ where they’re not affected by the policies, but the average person IS impacted by them."
- Rochester Police Department Captain Frank Umbrino: "We're extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it's worse than a war zone around here lately."
- Retired Chief of Detectives for NYPD Robert Boyce: “Nobody’s getting arrested anymore.”
As crime surged in 2021, so did attacks on the men and women in blue tasked with protecting their communities.
- Ambush-style attacks on law enforcement increased 115 percent from 2020.
- 346 law enforcement officers were shot at and 63 killed in the line of duty – a significant uptick from 2020.
Police are retiring at skyrocketing rates, with staffing shortages across the country.