Major U.S. cities have seen an alarming spike in robberies and assaults this year and murder rates are holding high, police chiefs warn — as concern over violent crime is set to drive voter turnout in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) of senior cops from America’s biggest forces has warned in its mid-year report of ‘shocking numbers’ of violent crimes in urban areas compared to the same period last year.
The shocking data come as law and order remain top issues for voters in November’s midterm elections, and soft-on-crime policies and calls to defund police could hurt Democrats in some crime-plagued cities.
‘Compared to 2019 midyear figures, MCCA member cities have experienced a 50 percent increase in homicides and a roughly 36 percent increase in aggravated assaults,’ the group said in a statement.
‘These shocking numbers demonstrate how the sustained increase in violent crime has disproportionately impacted major urban areas.’
The survey found that homicides and rapes were slightly down in major U.S. cities compared to the same time last year — though they remain elevated following a roughly 30 percent spike in murders between 2019 and 2020.
Still, not all cities saw a drop in murders. Atlanta saw a roughly 20 percent rise and New Orleans a 40 percent rise in homicides, while Washington D.C., Baltimore, Dallas, Phoenix, and Denver also saw increases.
Scenes like this 70-year-old woman being beaten and kicked in the head by multiple attackers in broad daylight in San Francisco are becoming worryingly more common in crime-ridden cities
Overall, violent crime rates grew by 4.4 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2021, mostly due to sharp rises in the rates for robberies (13 percent) and aggravated assaults (2.6 percent).
New York City recorded a 39 percent rise in robberies and a 21 percent rise in aggravated assaults, while Los Angeles saw those figures jump by 22 percent and 21 percent respectively. San Francisco and Baltimore also saw steep rises.
It is unclear what is driving the surge, but Covid-19 created huge social upheaval and derailed government and community support systems. Gun sales also spiked during the pandemic.
Police forces are overstretched. Crime rates are rising even as cops worn out by the pandemic and disillusioned by calls to cut funding after George Floyd’s murder are quitting or retiring faster than they can be replaced.
Police chiefs are scrambling to recruit in a tight labor market while rethinking what services they can provide and what role cops should play in their communities. Many have shifted experienced officers to patrol duties to keep pace with 911 calls.
Pictured: Ezekiel Kelly, 19, caught on camera flashing an eerie grin (left in the back of a cop car, and right in a mugshot) after allegedly shooting four people dead and injuring three others in Memphis. He led police on an hours-long manhunt after an alert was raised, putting parts of the city into lockdown
The MCCA, which brings together 70 police forces, said in August it was studying trends on guns, the court system and other issues to try and ‘decrease the number of tragedies that have become far too common’.
The group’s data confirm what residents and visitors to big cities already know. In recent days, a tourist was raped in a New York City subway station and a burglar raided the home of a Los Angeles mayoral candidate.
Women business owners in Chicago, meanwhile, say they are ditching the crime-ridden downtown area and heading to the suburbs after a wave of burglaries and armed robberies on neighborhood stores.
Soft-on-crime district attorneys have come under fire. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland panned the decision to release Ezekiel Kelly early from prison, only for the 22-year-old to go on a killing rampage in the city last week.
Violent crime — along with gun control, inflation and the economy — are prominent in voters’ minds ahead of the midterms, which will determine control of the Democratic-held House and Senate for the rest of President Joe Biden’s first term.
About three-quarters of registered voters said the economy was very important to them, while about six-in-ten voters cited gun policy, violent crime, health care, voting policies and education, a Pew Research Center poll found last month.
The Sugar Bliss bakery and other businesses in downtown Chicago could shutter due to an uptick in crime, like this brazen intruder attempting to steal a purse
A commercial robbery at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Lower Manhattan this month. New York City has witnessed a startling rise in violent crimes this year.