Former President Donald Trump is ripping Democrat-run cities across the country for sidelining police, saying crime, especially in New York, has gone “through the roof,” and demanding police be given back their authority.
”Chicago, take a look at the numbers. They had 260 people shot on the Fourth of July weekend. New York, through the roof. Take a look at Los Angeles — what is going on in Los Angeles with the crime. And Oakland and Baltimore,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Nation that aired Monday.
”What you have to do is have to give the police back their authority,” he said.
The former president said, “New York is totally out of control” because there is “no more cash bail” and “all they do is go after Republicans.”
New York state passed a series of criminal justice reforms in late 2019 that included new bail reforms that allow suspects accused of more than 400 nonviolent offenses – like robbery and burglary — to walk free without posting a penny to ensure their return to court.
The number of murders in the city have increased 8.5 percent year-to-date over last year, according to statistics provided by the NYPD as of July 4.
Of the seven major “index crimes” tracked by the NYPD, five — murder, rape, felony assault, grand larceny and grand larceny auto — have increased.
The other two — burglary and robbery — are down.
The number of shooting victims is up 32 percent and shooting incidents have increased 37 percent.
In the interview taped over the weekend’s three-day Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Trump, who spoke at the event, said the “police can stop” the spike in crime if cities remove the constraints on them.
”The police are afraid they will lose everything if they go after somebody because some bad acts were done,” Trump said, referring to police officers being recorded in confrontations with citizens, especially following the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin.
”It’s been happening for years even before defund the police,” said Fox reporter Lawrence Jones.
“That’s right,” Trump replied.