At least twelve major cities across the United States have officially broken their all-time homicide records this year, with three weeks left to go in 2021.
ABC News reported that of these twelve cities, five broke records that were either set or tied just last year.
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“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 Pennsylvania city surpassed an annual homicide record of 500, which had been in place since 1990.
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At 521 homicides as of December 6, Philadelphia has had more murders in 2021 than the nation’s two largest cities, New York (443 as of Dec. 5) and Los Angeles (352 as of Nov. 27). This year, the city has had more murders than any other American city is Chicago, which hit 739 homicides by the end of November.
Philadelphia broke its homicide record the same week that Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville broke theirs. The other major cities that have surpassed their respective homicide records are St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Toledo, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Rochester, New York; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“The community has to get fed up,” Capt. Frank Umbrino of the Rochester Police Department said after the city broke its 30-year-old record on Nov. 11. “We’re extremely frustrated. It has to stop. I mean, it’s worse than a war zone around here lately.”
Indianapolis, Columbus, Louisville, Toledo, and Baton Rouge each surpassed records that were set just last year, while St. Paul beat a record set in 1992.
Robert Boyce, retired chief of detectives for the New York Police, said that while there are many reasons for this spike in homicides, one national statistic jumps out at him.
“Nobody’s getting arrested anymore,” Boyce said. “People are getting picked up for gun possession, and they’re just let out over and over again.”
Christopher Herrmann, an assistant professor in the Department of Law & Police Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said that the murder spike in the U.S. could partly be because so many police officers are retiring and resigning in the current anti-law enforcement environment.
“I think, unfortunately, police departments are just losing a lot of their best and experienced officers and then because of the economic crisis, because of COVID, are having difficulties in hiring or just delays in hirings,” Herrmann said.
Perhaps liberals are finally learning the hard way that we really do need police officers. Go figure.
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