Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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Late last week, a top conservative think tank sought to undercut Democrats’ efforts to blame Republican governors and legislatures for spikes in crime.
Written primarily as a rebuff of the “Red State Murder Problem” report released in March by ThirdWay.org, a centrist think tank that is decidedly opposed to the politics of former President Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation’s “Blue City Murder Problem” is an effort to recontextualize as a city-level problem what the original report pins on states.
It is indisputable that violent crime is more prevalent in urban areas than rural and that cities controlled by Democrats occupy most spots in the top 30 of the murder rate. There aren’t many large cities in the nation that aren’t solidly in support of the Democrats.
However, the Heritage Foundation and Third Way are at odds over just what the crime numbers mean and who is to blame.
Third Way, as its report suggests, blames states for crime problems, which is convenient for Democrats as eight of the worst 10 states for murder are run by a Republican governor.
“Whether one does or does not blame Republican leaders for high murder rates, it seems that Republican officeholders do a better job of blaming Democrats for lethal crime than actually reducing lethal crime,” the Third Way report reads.
Although Third Way is unaffiliated with Democrats or Republicans — the group seeks to join ideas from both parties in a way that moderates both move to the center — Democrats have adopted the “Red State” report lately in what is a clear 11th-hour attempt to reclaim ground long ago ceded to Republicans.
In his recent tour in support of Democratic candidates, former President Barack Obama sought to shift the blame on crime to the right.
“You hear the Republicans talking a lot about crime, right?” Obama said during a speech in Michigan. “Violent crime has gone up over the last seven years, by the way, they act like it just happened just last year like the previous president wasn’t there, and by the way, it didn’t just happen in so-called blue states, it has gone up and in conservative-ruled states too.”
The Heritage Foundation views crime as a city-level concern and blames the scores of Democrats who occupy key positions in those areas.
“Those on the Left know that their soft-on-crime policies have wreaked havoc in the cities where they have implemented those policies,” the report reads.
It is not hard to understand why ‘reforms’ such as ending cash bail, defunding the police, refusing to prosecute entire categories of crimes, letting thousands of convicted felons out of prison early, significantly cutting the prison population, and other ‘progressive’ ideas have led to massive spikes in crime — particularly violent crime, including murder — in the communities where those on the Left have implemented them.
Charles Stimson, Zack Smith, and Kevin Dayaratna, the authors of the Heritage report, reviewed publicly available crime data for the worst cities in the United States for homicides, then listed 14 prosecutors who they viewed as “[George] Soros-backed or Soros-inspired rogue prosecutors,” loosely defined as prosecutors and district attorneys who refuse to enforce certain laws in their cities.
“The authors of the Third Way ‘study’ either intentionally neglected or simply don’t understand that the ‘criminal justice system’ within the 50 states is not a homogeneous nationwide system, but rather an amalgamation of thousands of microcosms consisting of federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors and unique approaches to the enforcement of state law,” the Heritage Foundation report reads.
Ultimately, these reports are little more than an attempt by one think tank or another to establish a dominant narrative. In that regard, the Heritage Foundation is ahead by a great margin.
Virtually all reputable polls show that Republicans are viewed more favorably than Democrats in terms of combating crime.