Editorial from the Daily News Editorial Board
Donald Trump responded to rising crime by taunting Democratic mayors and vilifying undocumented immigrants. Those on the far-left respond to it by amplifying calls to defund or even dismantle police departments, on the errant belief that social programs are the best short-term way to stop bullets flying.
Acting just before summer when crime typically spikes, President Joe Biden proves yet again that, like Eric Adams, he inhabits the sane middle where most Americans live and fewer Americans die. His prescription for the wave of violence washing over cities is to tighten up insanely porous gun laws and support police, while helping those recently released from prison find a foothold on the outside.
Facts first. Not all crime went up last year. But murders did jump by about 25 percent, and violent crime more broadly went up about 3 percent. In New York City, Chicago, L.A. and elsewhere, shootings are tearing apart communities. Criminologists can’t say why (they debate these things for years, if not decades), but it’s likely a combination of cops feeling on their heels, COVID-19 and its aftermath destabilizing communities, and record gun sales flooding the streets with deadly weapons.
Reversing a Trump administration that all but disarmed federal gun enforcers, Biden will direct his Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to revoke licenses from gun sellers the very first instance they’re caught engaging in unauthorized gun sales, either by failing to run a background check or ignoring a federal request to provide trace information about a gun used in a crime. About time.
Simultaneously, he’s encouraging localities to invest more of their COVID-19 relief funds in police, as well as in other wise strategies, like connecting teenagers with summer jobs. And committing to hiring more people leaving prison into federal jobs, while moving to offer them more federal housing vouchers.
Ideological blinders won’t push violence down. The only way to do that is to attack the drivers of crime with effective policing, targeted social services and relentless enforcement to seize every last illegal weapon.
