MSNBC is facing intense scrutiny after reportedly claiming police are to blame for rising crime. MSNBC contributor Brittany Cunningham alleged rising crime was the fault of police and had nothing to do with the “defund the police” movement.
In a statement following the show, Detectives Endowment Association President Paul Digiacomo argued Cunningham’s remarks did not “make common sense” because New York had far fewer homicides before liberal legislators “defunded” their police department.
New York State Trooper Thomas Mungeer also weighed in by saying crime upticks over the last year have been from cutting police forces and handcuffing officers from doing their jobs. He asserted there was “no other way to quantify” it.
Cunningham went on to also claim police departments were ineffective at helping people. Her claims were in stark contrast to a recent report, which showed the addition of more NYPD patrols underground has resulted in a decrease in assaults on New York City subways.
With at least 200 U.S. police departments reporting a 45 percent increase in retirement and an 18 percent rise in resignations compared to 2020, officers have hit their breaking point. Sergeant Jake Verhalen from Fulsom County, California, weighed in on personnel difficulties by saying he believes rhetoric and policies surrounding the death of George Floyd have been largely responsible for this.
“Some of it has to do with pay and benefits, but I think there is a bigger picture. That being, this public discourse, if you will, against the police and some young people perhaps are asking themselves the question, is that really a career path that I want to go down.”
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has echoed these concerns. Earlier this month, he predicted a steep increase in crime this summer and warned if the left keeps pushing the “defund the police” movement, streets will not be safe because law enforcement will not have the manpower or resources to protect Americans from criminals.
In the last three months of 2020, homicides rose 32.2% in cities with a population of at least one million, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report. Law-enforcement officials and criminologists say pandemic stress and a police pullback amid protests are likely contributors.
Now, faced with staggering increases in violent crimes, a year after the movement to “defund” law enforcement began to upend municipal budgets, many American cities are restoring money to their police departments or proposing to spend more.
In addition to the moves made by New York Mayor DeBlasio, which have resulted in safer streets and subways, after attacks on Asian-Americans and a rise in homicides in Oakland, Calif., city lawmakers in April restored $3.3 million of the $29 million in police cuts, and the mayor is now proposing to increase the department’s budget by $24 million. Los Angeles’s mayor has proposed an increase of about $50 million after the city cut $150 million from its police department last year.
“It’s hard to have a serious conversation with folks about cutting a police department’s budget when crime is up,” said Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia and a Democrat.
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