Talk about rotten timing. At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 -- and there's still three weeks to go in the year.
For normal people with common sense, such dismal news is a wake up call for law and order (we are still a nation governed by the rule of law no?).
But for Black Lives Matter, who just broke their own record for the worst possible timing, this is a good time to call for abolishing the police. Defund them. Why? Because they say so (Romans 13:3-5).
Twelve Major Cities Hit All Time Homicide Records
At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 -- and there's still three weeks to go in the year. Sorry for the bad news. If you weren’t feeling bad enough already, the cities are:
Philadelphia
St. Paul MN
Portland
Indianapolis
Toledo
Columbus, OH
Louisville
Albequerque
Austin, TX
Baton Rouge
Rochester, NY
Tucson, AZ
Of the dozen cities that have already surpassed the grim milestones for killings, five topped records that were set or tied just last year.
"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 its annual homicide record of 500, which stood since 1990.
Philadelphia, a city of roughly 1.5 million people, has had more homicides this year (521 as of Dec. 6) than the nation's two largest cities, New York (443 as of Dec. 5) and Los Angeles (352 as of Nov. 27). That's an increase of 13% from 2020, a year that nearly broke the 1990 record.
Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, leads the nation with 739 homicides as of the end of November, up 3% from 2020, according to Chicago Police Department crime data. Chicago's deadliest year remains 1970 when there were 974 homicides.
Philadelphia's homicide record was broken in the same week that Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville eclipsed records for slayings.
Experts say there are a number of reasons possibly connected to the jump in homicides, including strained law enforcement staffing, a pronounced decline in arrests and continuing hardships from the pandemic, but that there is no clear answer across the board.
Other major cities that have surpassed yearly homicide records are St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Toledo, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Rochester, New York; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, which broke its record back in August.
According to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report released in September, the nation saw a 30% increase in murder in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the bureau began recording crime statistics 60 years ago.
Robert Boyce, retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department and an ABC News contributor, said that while there is no single reason for the jump in slayings, one national crime statistic stands out to him.
“Nobody’s getting arrested anymore," Boyce said. "Starting in mid 2020, people are getting picked up for gun possession and/or criminal acts 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 the decrease in arrests could be attributed to the large number of police officers who retired or resigned in 2020 and 2021, and some who were ‘let go’ as woke mayors trimmed back the police forces of their cities.
A workforce survey released in June by the Police Executive Research Forum found the voluntary retirement rate in police departments nationwide jumped 45% over 2020 and 2021. And another 18% of officers resigned, the survey found, a development which coincided with nationwide social justice protests and calls to defund law enforcement agencies following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Houston, we have a problem. And Portland, Austin, and Baton Rouge, Indianapolis, Albuquerque, Toledo, Philadelphia and Columbus etc… Into this crisis of law and order comes Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter Calls For The Abolition of Police
Just as news outlets were reporting record rises in murders in 12 cities—Black Lives Matter, the organization that led the political violence, released right on cue a new statement doubling down on its call for “the abolition” not just of police, but also prisons and the court system. In other words, they want to get rid of the rule of law, the very law that keeps a country from descending into chaos. Key takeaway: They like chaos.
The statement suffered from incredibly bad timing in more than one way—it was in support of the actor Jussie Smollett, who two days later was found guilty of staging his own “attack by white supremacists,” in an effort to revive his flailing acting career. In its statement, BLM called the trial a “white supremacist charade.” Even worse, Smollett was placed in a jail cell with his own attacker.
Much worse than rhetoric has been BLM’s push for the abolition of society’s law enforcement system and its support for “restorative justice,” which seeks to justify and exonerate the criminal. The push for restorative (social) justice had already led to a pullback in prosecuting crimes.
Add to it the pullback in policing that results from BLM’s violent destabilization of cities—a documentable phenomenon colloquially known as “the Ferguson effect”—and it is little wonder that we see today’s horrific rise in murders and other crimes.
These murders come alongside a worrying rise in “flash mob” robberies hitting San Francisco and other urban centers in California. And it’s important to bear in mind that this year’s bloodletting builds on 2020’s 30% rise in murders nationwide, the highest in U.S. history.
As BLM founder Patrisse Cullors explained in this Feb. 22 video, “To really put it simply, abolition is the getting rid of police, prisons and jails, surveillance, and courts.”
The BLM Statement
December 7, 2021
The below is a statement from Dr. Melina Abdullah, Director of BLM Grassroots and Co-Founder of BLM Los Angeles, regarding the ongoing trial of Jussie Smollett:
As abolitionists, we approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us. So let’s be clear: we love everybody in our community (our community means black community. Whites need not apply).
It’s not about a trial or a verdict decided in a white supremacist charade, it’s about how we treat our community when corrupt systems are working to devalue their lives (if a black individual is arrested for a crime, BLM automatically assumes that they are innocent, and the court system is guilty).
In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth. Instead, we find ourselves, once again, being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department, which has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives (this is simply not true, the great majority of police officers are decent people with families of their own, trying to do their best in an often thankless job).
In our commitment to abolition, we can never believe police, especially the Chicago Police Department (CPD) over Jussie Smollett, a Black man who has been courageously present, visible, and vocal in the struggle for Black freedom (again, police are automatically assumed to be guilty, and a gay black charlatan is innocent and honorable. Isaiah 5:20, anyone?)
While policing at-large is an irredeemable institution, CPD is notorious for its long and deep history of corruption, racism, and brutality (calling law enforcement irredeemable because you don’t like it doesn’t make you right or redeemable, rather it reveals your lawless heart).
From the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, to the Burge tortures, to the murder of Laquan McDonald and subsequent cover-up, to the hundreds of others killed by Chicago police over the years and the thousands who survived abuse, Chicago police consistently demonstrate that they are among the worst of the worst. Police lie and Chicago police lie especially (this exaggerated statement is simply designed to inflame racial unrest. People who bear such false witness will face their own words in the judgment. Do all police lie? Some may, most do not.).
Black Lives Matter will continue to work towards the abolition of police and every unjust system. We will continue to love and protect one another (melanin love is simply racism, and has no place in the Kingdom of God where His children love one another, regardless of their nation, tribe, tongue, and people), and wrap our arms around those who do the work to usher in Black freedom and, by extension, freedom for everyone else (BLM ‘loves’ social justice warriors, anti-racist virtual signalers, and woke cultural Marxists. As long as you support them; step out of line and you will be hated).
Ps. All 12 cities that saw record homicide spikes in 2021 are run by Democratic mayors. Mm-hmm. We checked the public record.
Other cities have “rogue prosecutors”—elected law enforcement officials who refuse to prosecute criminals and return them back to the street, even when police do arrest them. Lawlessness.
Where is all this headed? Lawlessness. And where is lawlessness headed? Towards the loss of an essential ingredient for the end time—love. And the Moral Law of God operates on love.
Are you starting to see the connection?
****
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).