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One Sunday afternoon last September, a 16-year-old called Aaron Pryor was shot to death in a driveway near his home in Oakland, California. Even by the standards of midday drive-by shootings, it was an awful crime. Surveillance footage showed the killer fired more than a dozen rounds, before fleeing. No one was arrested for the murder, but local media didnt seem especially interested in finding out who did it. They already knew. The coronavirus killed Aaron Pryorthats what they told us.

One local TV station noted that violence in the area had risen since the pandemic beganthey must be connected. Pryor's football coach agreed. "It was COVID that really killed this kid," he told reporters. The coach didnt explain how exactly COVID had done this killing, or what COVIDs motive might have been. But no one asked. Everyone, particularly people in power, seemed happy to blame the pandemic. You heard that a lot. Across the country, in New York City, Mayor Bill De Blasio put responsibility for rising crime rates squarely on the virus.

De Blasio, MSNBC September 2020: Katy Tur: So, police organizations will say that part of the reason that crime is up is because there has been a cut in funding to the NYPD. What do you say to that? Mayor DeBlasio: This predates any funding decisions, that's just the truth. The perfect storm I mentioned started in March and April, when everything shut down and we saw the violence start in earnest May into June, into July. It's clearly because things came unglued

Right, it must have been the pandemic. It makes sense because we forced everyone to stay home. Thats why there are so many people on the street shooting each other and pushing strangers into oncoming subway cars. Does that make sense to you? No, it doesnt make sense to anyone. But thankfully experts soon emerged to explain why something so obviously untrue must in fact be true.

"Because the stresses of the pandemic are everywhere," explained a former CIA officer called Jeff Asher to the New York Times, "you are seeing this everywhere." Except were not seeing it everywhere, thats not true.

The coronavirus may be global, but rising crime rates are not global. Police in Canada reported that crime fell by 18 percent between March and October 2020. In the U.K., crime saw its biggest annual decrease in a decade. In Sweden and Russia, crime dropped too. Even in Mexico, which is in the middle of a drug war, there were fewer homicides in 2020 than there were in 2019. For normal countries, the pandemic meant more Netflix and less killing.

But not here. In the United States, the opposite happened. A lot of Netflix, even more killings. You're seeing the data on your screen now; it's from a nonprofit called The Council on Criminal Justice and researchers at the University of Missouri. It shows the average weekly homicide rate in 21 major cities. Killings spiked in late May, well after the pandemic began.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, "Homicides, aggravated assaults, and gun assaults rose significantly beginning in late May and June of 2020. They jumped by 42% during the summer and 34% in the fall when compared to the summer and fall of 2019." So far this year, these sad trends have continued.

Murders are up 800 percent in Portland, 56 percent in Minneapolis, 27 percent in Los Angeles, 22 percent in New York, and 40 percent in Philadelphia.

So you have to ask yourself, because your life may depend on it, why is this country different from Sweden, Russia, and Mexico? You know the answer. Its not COVID. Its that in our country, stupid, malicious people took full controlthe Democratic Party took full control of the countryand their policies resulted in a huge number of killings. Here they are, bragging about their plans.

OBAMA: the folks in law enforcement that share the goals of reimagining policing REP JERRY NADLER: Reimagining policing in the 21st century. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan: Rethinking and reimagining policing SEN. Dick Durbincommunity efforts to reimagine policing AL SHARPTON: We have to reimagine what policing looks like JESSICA BYRD, ACTIVIST: Reimagining policing, reimagining our public safety ALI VELSHI: Reimagine a citizen-led approach REP JULIAN CASTRO: You can begin to reimagine law enforcement EDDIE GLAUDE: Reimagine public safety in this country OAKLAND MAYOR LIBBY SCHAAF: To reimagine public safety LA MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI: What can we do to Reimagine public safety ANTONIO BROWN, ATLANTA CITY COUNCIL: A budget thats reflective of reimagining public safety SEN KAMALA HARRIS: We must reimagine what public safety looks like

Well, they definitely reimagined public safety, they made the public much less safe. According to a report in Axios, 20 major U.S. cities have slashed their police budgets in the last yearthey defunded the police. Collectively, theyve cut more than $840 million from law enforcement.

In Atlanta, in a story we love to read, one city councilman who voted to strip $73 million from the police -- a genius called Antonio Brown -- just had his car stolen in broad daylight by children. Who were not held back by the police, they were defunded. Must have been COVID that did it. Meanwhile, at least twenty-five cities have pulled police out of public schoolshows that going to work? You know the answer. At universities, activists have pushed for the same thing -- total abolition of the police. When they said they were going to defund the police, they meant it.

At The University of Chicago, dozens of students swarmed the home of the college president. One of them, an especially entitled young lady called Madeline Wright, shouted through a megaphone. Quote: "Were going to fight to abolish this (expletive) system, not reform it." Professors at the school joined her. One of them, a character called Damon Jones, led seminars on the problem of "over-policing" in the neighborhood around the university, its called Hyde Park, its where Obamas from. He wrote dozens of posts on Twitter last summer explaining that because University of Chicago police stop more African Americans than White people, in a predominantly Black neighborhood, theyre racist.

Whats interesting is that Damon Jones hasn't said anything on Twitter about police since January. That's when Yiran Fan, a 30-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, was murdered in a killing spree on Chicago's South Side, along with two other people. At that point, its possible that morons like Damon Jones realized theres a reason that the University of Chicago has one of the largest private police forces outside of the Vatican. Why? Because the neighborhood around the school is a very dangerous place. Thats not the fault of the police, thats the reason they have police. It could be true about the city of Chicago which is now a dangerous place and becoming more so by the day. Why has that happened? Its happened because people with a political agenda have taken over law enforcement. It was in Chicago that BLM activists declared looting, stealing was a form of reparations.

BLM ACTIVIST ARIEL ATKINS, August 2020: They get upset when people start looting People in this city are struggling through a pandemic so I dont care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci or a Macys or a Nike because that makes sure that person eats. That makes sure that person has clothes. That makes sure that person can make some kind of money because this city obviously doesnt care about them. Not only that thats reparations.

So you have to steal from Gucci to eat. Stealing is reparations. Now thats insane and only a sick society would listen to someone like that. That would be dismissed immediately in a healthy society. Did a single Democratic politician push back? No. So guess what happened? In the city of San Francisco, Walgreens has closed 17 different stores. Why? Because prosecutors in San Francisco and in many places in California but not just there, no longer charge shoplifters, so people steal whatever they want. Theres so much theft, the stores cant afford to stay open. Theyre not closing as a political statement, they cant afford to have their merchandise stolen. This is not the country you were born in. Heres what it looks like:

KTVU (October 2020 package): The Walgreens on Van Essen in San Francisco will close its doors for good. Customers say the store is known for being a notoriously easy place to shoplift. WOMAN: Ive heard Walgreens is real easy to steal from REPORTER: Why is that WOMAN: Because they dont chase you REPORTER: Neighbors say shoplifting may be a major factor in why the store will soon close. Customers say the shelves are bare, with the company not even bothering to restock.

To be clear, its not that Americans have grown more prone to steal, its that stealing is now allowed. And when you allow something, you get more of it. This is a result of policies with the intention to get more stealing. Designed to give us more murder, more rape, more pushing people in front of subway cars. Its happened because the people in charge allowed it to happen.

Its happening everywhere, particularly in New York, where several candidates for mayor running to replace Bill De Blasio have said that anyone who opposes stealing is quote "criminalizing poverty." Who are the people with views like that? They arent normal people. Needless to say, most of the people with these views are pampered out-of-touch liberalstheyre the only ones who could afford to have views like that. Actress Cynthia Nixon certainly fits that description. Nixon expressed outrage the other day that CVS in her neighborhood was trying to prevent thieves from walking off with the inventory.

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Quote: "I can't imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them."

Youve got to wonder what would happen if you showed up at Cynthia Nixons place tonight and tried to help yourself to some quote, "basic necessities." Would Nixon understand your theft as a profound form of protest? As a profound form of social justice, and applaud it? Or would she tell her bodyguards to shoot you, and then thank them profusely when they did? Not a tough question. Youd be dead in seconds. Cynthia Nixon doesnt mean a word of what she says about crime. None of them mean a work of what they say about crime. Theyre just trying to feel like good people in a world that confuses destruction for virtue. These people need help. They should be nowhere near power. Unfortunately, at the moment, they run the Democratic Party and all of us are seeing the results of that.

This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the May 27, 2021, edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

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Tucker Carlson: Democrats have reimagined public safety, making the public much less safe - Fox News

(carlballou/Getty Images)Progressives who arent alarmed that reporters are dodging bullets at the George Floyd memorial are tempting political fate.

On the anniversary of the death of George Floyd, dozens of gunshots rang out in the middle of the day at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, forcing reporters and bystanders to duck and cover.

The symbolism was unmistakable the yearlong bout of protest after Floyds killing has coincided with a surge of urban crime that has made gunplay dismayingly common.

Indeed, the intersection where Floyd was killed, now a memorial blocked to vehicular traffic, has become a watchword for mayhem.

The issue of public safety may be about to play its most significant role in our politics since the mid-1990s, the beginning of a decades-long decline in crime that steadily eroded its political salience.

Donald Trump tried to make law and order a defining issue in 2020, but the rioting he so forcefully denounced was, in most places, too transitory to become an overwhelming issue.

Now, more than a year into a serious crime wave, Democrats are fooling themselves if they think they wont be blamed for rising violence in Democratic-run cities.

Overall, murder increased by more than 25 percent in the United States last year, the biggest jump in 60 years. Surely, the dislocations of the pandemic have been a factor, but its also obvious that anti-police agitation has put the cops on their back feet. Exhibit A is Minneapolis.

In the fevered aftermath of the Floyd killing, the city council pledged to do away with the police department, among the most outlandishly unachievable and self-destructive promises ever made by an elected body. Of course, it couldnt follow through on it any more than it could have followed through on a promise to eliminate traffic lights or municipal snow removal.

Still, cops have fled the force while crime has soared. The impeccably progressive mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, who desperately wanted to ingratiate himself at a tribunal-like anti-police rally last summer, but, to his credit, wouldnt commit to defunding the police, now occasionally sounds like hes channeling Rudy Giuliani circa 1993.

Another dyed-in-the-wool progressive, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, faced with ongoing unrest that once was blamed on Trump, has called for the citys residents to take the city back and for unmasking, arresting, and prosecuting rioters.

Los Angeles cut its police budget by 8 percent in the wake of the Floyd protests and now is adding it right back. In South Los Angeles, the LAPD is increasing patrols and vehicle stops to search for guns and gang members.

Irving Kristol famously said a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. If progressive politicians who are now sounding friendlier to the police havent been mugged, they at least have been alarmed by the sound of approaching gunfire.

The turnabout isnt universal. White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked the other day whether theres a crime problem and, sounding as evasive as when she discusses the border, would say only that there is a guns problem. This was a reference to the completely unconvincing argument that increased gun sales have led to the spike in crime when surges in gun sales since the mid-1990s never before led to higher crime.

The problem that Democrats have is that they have accepted and celebrated the people making a comprehensive case against the police as systematically racist.

This argument doesnt naturally allow for nuance. In fact, it logically entails calling for fewer cops and less police funding, an agenda that will be hard to sell to most people in the best of circumstances but is toxic in an environment of rising crime.

Black Lives Matter has already been losing support in the polls, while trust in the police has been rising. Things would have to get much worse for crime to become as central an issue as it was in the 1970s. But Democrats who arent alarmed that reporters are dodging bullets at the George Floyd memorial are tempting political fate.

2021 by King Features Syndicate

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Yes, Democrats Should Fear the Crime Wave - National Review

Democrats are working to rebuild a state-level political juggernaut ahead of next years midterms as they look to head off a potential electoral thrashing in 2022.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its state counterparts recently struck an agreement that party officials say could prove transformative to both their short- and long-term political prospects by providing much-needed financial aid to struggling state parties after a particularly difficult decade.

The deal, which was hashed out over weeks of negotiations and has buy-in from the White House, comes as Democrats prepare for what is expected to be a difficult election cycle. They are defending ultra-narrow majorities in the House and Senate, while grappling with the fact that the party of a new president typically loses ground in the midterm elections.

This is my prediction: I do think that that means we will pick up seats in 2022 with these early investments in state party infrastructure, Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said.

This says every state matters, were going to campaign everywhere, and were going to be smart with additional resources, she added. It is a major shift from how things have been, and its not what the Republican Party is doing. The Republican Party is centering on one person and one race.

The $23 million agreement provides most state Democratic parties with $12,500 each month in funding from the DNC, up from about $10,000. Eighteen parties in states where Republicans hold the reins of power will receive additional funding for a total of $15,000 per month from the DNC.

The deal also reestablishes the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that will allow the partys biggest donors to give up to $875,000 apiece to a fund that will be split among the parties.

The agreement struck between the DNC and the state parties is good for at least the next four years, and party officials acknowledge that it wont lead to sweeping change overnight.

But there is also a sense of urgency to the effort, especially given the spate of down-ballot losses suffered by Democrats last year.

Republicans need to pick up only about half a dozen seats in the House and just one in the Senate next year to recapture their congressional majorities. At the same time, a handful of House Democrats have announced plans to either retire or run for higher office, leaving several competitive seats up for grabs.

The term of this deal is really significant. The DNC is locked into a four-year deal with state parties, said Ken Martin, the chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and president of the Association of State Democratic Committees. Theyre taking a big risk on that. None of us know what the 2022 midterms are going to look like. And of course if we get our butts kicked, raising money could be a big challenge.

While the monthly stipends amount to only about half as much as the $25,000 per month that state parties received from the DNC more than a decade ago under former Chairman Howard Dean, the extra funding marks the latest step in a years-long effort to rehabilitate Democrats party infrastructure that began four years ago under former DNC Chairman Tom PerezThomas PerezClintons top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labors 'wasteful spending and mismanagement at Workers Comp MORE.

The idea, party officials say, is to build out a permanent campaign infrastructure at the grassroots level that gives state leaders more flexibility to organize on their own terms. Kleeb, for instance, said that the additional funding will allow her to hire a digital organizer to oversee online voter registration and outreach efforts.

The DNCs current chief, Jaime HarrisonJaime HarrisonPro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood causes headache for GOP in key S.C. race DNC announces funding agreement with state parties Democrats fundraise off of vote to remove Cheney from GOP leadership MORE, himself a former South Carolina Democratic Party chair, has pledged to bolster Democrats state-level political infrastructure. The effort also has the backing of the White House, and President BidenJoe BidenBiden's quiet diplomacy under pressure as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies Overnight Defense: Administration approves 5M arms sale to Israel | Biden backs ceasefire in call with Netanyahu | Military sexual assault reform push reaches turning point CDC mask update sparks confusion, opposition MOREs deputy chief of staff, Jen OMalley Dillon, is said to be in regular contact with the DNC.

President Biden has been so supportive of this, as has Jen OMalley Dillon, Martin said.

Biden has fused his political operation with the DNC, something that Martin said has not been done since former President Clinton was in the White House.

Bidens immediate Democratic predecessor, former President Obama, largely shunned the partys institutional structure during his time in office, opting instead to lean on a network of outside groups, like Organizing for Action, to advance his political goals. Under that model, however, the DNC and state parties struggled, current and former officials said.

When President Obama came into the White House, they had a much different vision on how to build infrastructure, Martin said. The White House decided at the time that they were going to build the infrastructure on the outside.

That was a really challenging time for the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of losses because of that, he added. Probably one of the worst periods for our party, at least in modern history, in modern memory.

While Obama remains a highly influential figure among Democrats, many are quick to recall the political setbacks that occurred during his presidency.

The 2010 midterms saw Republicans gain 63 seats in the House and consequently the majority in the lower chamber. In 2014, Democrats Senate majority evaporated as the GOP picked up nine seats. By the time former President TrumpDonald TrumpGOP-led Maricopa County board decries election recount a 'sham' Analysis: Arpaio immigration patrol lawsuit to cost Arizona county at least 2 million Conservatives launch 'anti-cancel culture' advocacy organization MORE took office in 2017, Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and 31 governors mansions, up from 21 when Obama was inaugurated in 2009.

One longtime DNC member complained that Obamas political operation often sought to help select candidates at the expense of other down-ballot Democrats and the traditional party structure, and praised the current effort to bolster the DNC and state parties.

We all learned the lesson from the Obama years where we had a strong president who was able to do transformative politics at the national level. But if you didnt hit that cool kids list, you were screwed, one longtime DNC member said.

Theyre not going to let us make the same mistakes and get into this territory Im going to only help candidates who I connect with attitude.

Another DNC member said that the failure to invest in the DNC and state parties left Democrats with a dearth of experienced campaign workers as many former staffers moved on to other jobs.

What we were left with was this void of a generation of campaign staff, the member said. The campaign staffers that were trained well in the early 2000s were now in the White House or in Congress.

Democratic leaders say they have learned from past mistakes. In addition to the agreement struck between the national party and state parties, Harrison has pledged a more active role for the DNC in the midterms and has so far committed $20 million to rebuilding the partys so-called 50-state strategy ahead of the 2022 elections.

If we really want to be a national party that competes in every zip code, we need to acknowledge that Rome wasnt built in a day. The success in Arizona and Georgia didnt happen overnight, Martin said, pointing to two long-time Republican strongholds where Democrats scored key victories last year.

Its an acknowledgment that if we want to see the next Arizona and Georgia, we need to make the investments.

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Democrats look to rebuild party structure with midterms in mind | TheHill - The Hill

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. The last time Florida Democrats held the governors mansion was in the late 1990s. The last time Florida Democrats won a U.S. Senate race was in 2012.

With two marquee statewide races on the ballot in 2022, Florida Democrats are looking to reverse their fortunes.

Its a real strategy question for the Democrats, says UCF political science professor Dr. John Hanley.

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Hanley notes that Democrats are facing congressional redistricting, when the state will add a Congressional District and redraw district lines. Republicans control the legislature, and while the Florida constitution calls for fair districts, Democrats are aware that districts will change and may tilt more Republican in 2022.

Its unclear how those seats will be affected, the Crist seat, the Murphy seat the Demings seat because Republicans control redistricting, says Hanley.

Already, former Republican Governor, and current Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist has announced a run for Governor. Meanwhile Congresswoman Val Demings is expected to jump in the U.S. Senate race to face Marco Rubio. In addition, Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy has not announced her plans and could jump into the Senate race as well.

READ: Val Demings plans to challenge Marco Rubio in Florida Senate race

Im not sure about Demings district but you could say that about Murphy, says political consultant Jacob Perry. There are only so many places you can draw the lines, Im looking at population of the state its obviously in central Florida.

For Florida Democrats the race ahead will not just be difficult, itll be costly. Rubio is a proven fundraiser and DeSantis has already started amassing a large campaign reelection fund.

It is going to cost $30 million or more to be competitive in this race and that is a tough nut to crack, says Perry.

READ: COVID-19 updates: Florida reports 2,800 new coronavirus cases, 97 more deaths

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Democratic options in 2022 run through I-4 - WFTV Orlando

Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) speaks about the Senate Intelligence Committee findings and recommendations on threats to election infrastructure on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Democratic U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich on Tuesday introduced a resolution calling for policies to accelerate the widespread electrification of the economy and slash the use of fossil fuels.

The move comes as congressional Democrats are seeking to advance President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan to build out clean energy and combat climate change. The plan has faced resistance from Republicans over the price tag, scope and funding.

Heinrich's non-binding Electrifying America's Future resolution includes calls for electrifying polluting sectors like construction and transportation, expanding interregional transmission capacity, boosting financing for electric technologies and modernizing building codes to encourage adoption of electric appliances.

"This must be informing our decisions about infrastructure," Heinrich said at a press conference to unveil the resolution.

Electrifying infrastructure would deploy existing, proven technologies and create millions of good-paying union jobs, he said.

Proponents of switching high-emitting industries to run on electricity want buildings, vehicles and machinery to be powered by an emissions-free grid rather than oil or natural gas. The fossil fuel industry says many emerging electric technologies are simply unaffordable.

The aim of policies focused on electrification, Heinrich said, is to make sure that appliances like heat pump water heaters, which run on electricity, are widely available to businesses and consumers.

"If you don't have the heat pump water heater on the back of the truck it's not going in the house," he said. "We need to figure out all of these friction points and use the jobs and infrastructure package to solve these friction points."

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U.S. Democrat unveils resolution to electrify the economy - Reuters