NY Times ignores movement to defund police when analyzing surge in murders, suggests social services can help

The New York Times explored a surge in murders across America on Tuesday and ignored the defund the police movement and soft-on-crime policies when listing causes for the tragic spike but found space to mention “social services” can help the problem.

A series of random, high-profile murders have made national news in recent days. A UCLA graduate student was stabbed to death last week in a random daylight attack in Los Angeles, a woman was pushed to her death on a New York City subway platform, and another woman was shot and killed in New York during the robbery of a Burger King. A New York City man was also killed Friday when a suspected posed as a delivery driver to carry out a deadly attack.

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“In 2020, murders in the United States spiked more than 27 percent — the largest percentage increase in at least six decades. Last year, murders went up again. Those murders resulted in the deaths of thousands more Americans, and returned the U.S. to homicide rates not seen since the mid-1990s,” “The Morning” newsletter author German Lopez wrote for the Times.

The Gray Lady then reported that experts are divided on why murders have spiked but noted they typically point to either the ongoing COVID pandemic, a “change in policing” or an uptick in gun purchases. The passage about a “change in policing” failed to acknowledge the movement to defund the police, which has been pushed by both Democratic lawmakers and members of the media. Instead, the Times focused on police officers who are afraid to end up in “the next viral video” and a lack of confidence in cops by the American people.

“The fallout from the 2020 racial justice protests and riots could have contributed to the murder spike. Police officers, scared of being caught in the next viral video, may have pulled back on proactive anti-violence practices,” Lopez wrote.

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“More of the public lost confidence in the police, possibly reducing the kind of cooperation needed to prevent murders. In extreme circumstances, the lack of confidence in the police could have led some people to take the law into their own hands — in acts of street or vigilante violence,” Lopez continued. “The timing supports this theory, with homicides rising unusually quickly shortly after George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing protests. Killings also spiked in 2015 and 2016, after protests over policing during those years.”

The Times’ passage about a “change in policing” ended there, quickly pivoting to “more guns” being a reason why crime has surged.

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The Times newsletter ignored the polarizing defund the police movement’s impact to police departments across the country. Last year, Dr. Darrin Porcher, a veteran of the New York City police department, said the movement was hurting recruitment and retention and hindering response times.

While the Times didn’t mention the defund the police movement, it did suggest that social services can help reduce the number of murders in America.

“In the short term, there’s solid evidence for policing — specifically, more focused policing, targeting the people and places most likely to be violent. With some of these strategies, the police work with other social services to lift violent perpetrators out of that life,” Lopez wrote.

“In the long term, experts support a range of solutions that enrich both individuals’ and communities’ socioeconomic standing over time; they include preschool programs, summer job initiatives, raising the school dropout age, greening of vacant lots, more streetlights and expanded drug treatment. There’s also good evidence for gun control and higher alcohol taxes,” he added.

In addition to the movement to defund police, many Democratic-led cities have turned to soft-on-crime policies. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been under attack since his office released his “Day One” memo to staff directing them to downgrade certain felonies, including armed robberies of commercial businesses, and to no longer seek jail time for many serious offenses. The Times didn’t mention this, either.

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Meanwhile, liberal CNN even admitted on Tuesday that calls for defunding police have lasting effects when it published an op-ed by former Republican Pennsylvania congressman Charlie Dent on the crime surge in Philadelphia.

“The bottom line is that elected officials in major urban centers must address the homicide wave occurring on their watch. Indulging those extreme voices who argue for defunding the police and making law enforcement out as villains must end. It’s time to get serious about what is happening on the streets,” Dent wrote.

Fox News’ Kelsey Koberg and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.