Democrat-led cities hit all-time homicide records
Fox News' Bryan Llenas provides analysis amid the crime spike in Democrat cities
Twelve major cities across the nation broke annual homicide records this year, following 2020’s already historically bloody year.
"The community has to get fed up," Rochester Police Department Capt. Frank said at a news conference in November. "We're extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it's worse than a war zone around here lately."
Rochester broke its 30-year-old homicide record on Nov. 11 with 71 homicides. The city’s previous record sat at 69 in 1991.
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Rochester is joined by 11 other cities that broke homicide records this year, according to ABC News, including: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico.
All 12 cities are led by Democratic mayors.
Philadelphia has recorded more homicides this year than the nation’s two largest cities - New York City and Los Angeles - with 521 homicides as of Dec. 6, ABC News reported. New York City has recorded 443 as of Dec. 5 and Los Angeles 352 as of Nov. 27.
Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney speaks during a news conference at Pennsylvania Convention Center as vote counting continues three days after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 6, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (Reuters)
"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," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said after his city surpassed 500 homicides in November. The City of Brotherly Love previously had a homicide record of 500, which was set in 1990.
Some have blamed the crime spikes on bail reform, lack of arrests, fall out from police retirements and resignations following 2020’s nationwide calls to defund the police.
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"Nobody’s getting arrested anymore," retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, Robert Boyce, told ABC News. "People are getting picked up for gun possession and they're just let out over and over again."
"America’s most beautiful cities are indeed being ruined by liberal policies," Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw said on "Fox & Friends" last week of cities experiencing crime surges. "There’s a direct line between death and decay and liberal policies."
Portland Police released an image of the crime scene here a man was fatally shot by police on June 25, 2021 (Portland Police Bureau)
"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. And they are absolutely ruining America’s greatest cities, and we should be outraged about it."
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The spikes come after there was a 45% increase in the police retirement rate and a nearly 20% increase in resignations from officers in 2020-2021 compared to the previous year, according to a June survey from the Police Executive Research Forum.
Two other cities are also close to breaking homicide records this year. Milwaukee is 12 homicides short of breaking its 2020 record of 190, and Minneapolis is six homicides short of breaking its 1995 record of 97, ABC News reported.
2020 was already a bloody year in cities across the nation, FBI data shows. Murders spiked nearly 30% nationally last year compared to 2019 data, notching the largest single-year jump in the bureau’s 60 years of recording such figures.
This photo posted by Philadelphia Police Department shows a PPD police vehicle. (Philadelphia Police Department Twitter)
"Homicide rates were higher during every month of 2020 relative to rates from the previous year," a report from the National Commission of COVID-19 and Criminal Justice this year states, calling the 30% surge "a large and troubling increase that has no modern precedent."
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Meanwhile, families of crime victims are pleading for help to combat the violence.
"If you say that this is not a warzone, If you say this is not a crisis, either your inhumane or your humanity has left for you," Stanley Crawford of Philadelphia told Fox News last week. "We need help in the city of Philadelphia. And again, I don't care where it comes from. it can come from the National Guard. It can come from any source."
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