The cost of the embrace of pro-crime politics, whether it's "sentencing reform" or Black Lives Matter, is measured in cemeteries and morgues.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of homicide data since 1985 for the 35 largest cities shows that four—Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis, Tenn.—have in the past two years approached or exceeded the records set a quarter-century ago, when cities across the country were plagued by gang wars and a booming crack trade.
Twenty-seven of the country’s 35 largest cities saw per capita homicide rates rise since 2014, though most are still relatively low compared with 1990s levels, the data show.
The big 4 all have a sizable Black Lives Matter presence with the accompanying Ferguson Effect of intimidating police officers into inaction. Obama and pro-crime activists trashed Baltimore. Chicago's entanglement of gangs and politics is especially toxic. And Memphis and Milwaukee have both seen sizable Black Lives Matter hate protests, including the so-called Milwaukee Uprising.
Murders in Chicago last year rose to their highest rate since 1996, with 27.8 homicides for every 100,000 residents, based on police and the latest census data. Memphis equaled its highest rate last year in a Federal Bureau of Investigation database that goes back to 1985, at 32 murders per 100,000 residents.
Five neighborhoods with just 9% of Chicago’s population accounted for one-third of the city’s homicides in 2016, police figures show.
In Milwaukee, Chief Ed Flynn said about 10% of neighborhoods generate half the city’s violent crime, while the downtown is booming, having been through a revival in recent years.
So this isn't a large scale problem. It just has a large scale impact. Addressing it requires being honest about the source of the problem. Instead the left has irresponsibly embraced pro-crime policies and politics which blame police and the middle class for the violence of its base.