Surge of Violence Over July 4th Weekend

“Defund the police” has been the radical left’s war cry for weeks now as they protest the brave men and women who stand on the thin blue frontline every day to protect Americans, even the ones who viscerally protest against them. While President Trump and his administration work to promote law and order and have tried to work across party lines on police reform; Democrats are busy promoting anarchy as their actions on police reform do not match their words.

Senate Democrats blocked bipartisan police reform legislation last week; “What’s good for me is not good for thee” appears to be the motto Democrats are embracing as Democratic leaders around the country cut funding to the police, while they are acquiring private security details.

Democrats have made it clear that “police reform” is simply another buzz word that they will use over and over again to gain votes instead of inciting change, and there are real consequences to their actions. Without the support of lawmakers in Democrat-run cities around the country, police officers are forced to pull back.

Despite the homicide rate rising by 250%,  Los Angeles announced they are cutting the LAPD’s funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. In Minneapolis, they are working to disband the police entirely despite a 100% increase in homicides.

And just this past Fourth of July weekend, violence rose in cities across the country:

• 79 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend and 15 people were killed. 11 of the weekend’s victims were minors and two were just children.
• At least 42 people were shot in New York City and nine were killed.
• In Atlanta, 23 people were shot and three died including an eight-year-old girl.
• In South Carolina, eight people were shot and two were killed at a nightclub.
• A seven-year-old girl was shot and killed in Austin while standing on the sidewalk at her grandmother’s Fourth of July celebration.
• In Baltimore, several shootings across the city left at least one person dead and eight others injured.
• In Detroit, at least seven people were shot this weekend, two were killed.
• In Memphis, a woman was shot dead while watching fireworks. Other shootings were reported in the city that weekend.
• In Philadelphia, four people were shot in two separate shootings.
• In Louis, a child is in critical condition after being shot in the head this weekend.
• In Cleveland, an 8-year-old girl is in stable condition after being shot inside a vehicle this weekend.
• Reckless gunfire killed a 74-year old in North Carolina.

Law and order are the foundation for the American dream, but as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in an interview responding to the violence over the Fourth of July weekend, “This is no longer about peaceful protesting, this is about violent, criminal mobs taking over certain cities.”

Wolf continued, “We can come in as we did here in D.C. last month, where we restored that law and order back in the city, stopped churches from being burned; we do have the ability to do this. We just need to be invited and have those state and local authorities ask for the federal government’s help.”

Secretary Wolf used Portland, Oregon who has seen 38 straight days of protests and violence as a “great example” of what happens when the police are defunded and leadership from lawmakers is lacking.

President Trump has made it clear this his administration will provide any city with the resources they need to ensure the safety of their residents– all local officials need to do is ask. Democrats need to stop the grandstanding, the lives of innocent men, women, and children around the country depend on it.

Wolf concluded, “The president is very clear that we’re here to help them. I think that any city that is having increases in violence, burning, rioting, looting is by choice at this point. Those local elected officials are making a choice to keep their cities very unsafe and dangerous. The president has been very clear we’re here to support and provide resources. We’ll do that at their request.”