Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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It was 6 a.m. last week when news broke of a mass shooting in Chicago. Eight people were shot, five of whom died. By 7:30 a.m. a White House official was on the phone with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office. What could they do to help?

The slaughter was the third mass shooting in just over a week in Chicago, alone. A day earlier, another mass shooting injured 14 people and killed one in Austin, Texas. On Father’s Day in Sumter County, Florida, nine people were shot, one fatally, after a burst of gunfire at an annual event.

The list goes on. Just about every major U.S. city has seen mass shootings in recent weeks. But with the typical upswing in violent crime over the summer months just beginning, President Joe Biden also finds himself in the midst of a killing spree on pace to surpass the U.S. spiraling of gun violence from last year.

For a White House that has been intensely focused on stamping out Covid-19 and shepherding trillions of dollars in spending on infrastructure and social-welfare programs through Congress, the violence presents a host of challenges that administration officials have so far struggled to get their arms around. First and foremost: determining how to stanch the bloodshed without exacerbating existing tensions on policing or hampering criminal justice reform efforts — a top Democratic priority.

For now, the White House’s main response is to focus on the weapons doing most of the killing.

Homicides in the first quarter of 2021 were 24 percent higher than during the same period in 2020, and 49 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2019. And according to the Gun Violence Archive, guns are driving much of that spike. “It is staggering. It is sobering,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco acknowledged Tuesday in a town hall with police chiefs. “It is something that DOJ is committed to do all we can to reverse what are profoundly troubling trends and a really bad trajectory that we’re on.”

For weeks, the White House has been in touch with major cities to gauge the severity of the issue. That has included a discussion in May between domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and Lightfoot, in which the mayor laid out ways the federal government could help. On June 15, Lightfoot was among more than two dozen mayors who signed a letter asking the White House to take further action, ranging from investigating federally-licensed gun dealers and cracking down on illegal gun sales over social media platforms.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced five strike forces that will target the flow of illegal firearms into places like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. While Chicago, for example, has its own gun control measures in place, it has historically contended with the illegal trafficking of weapons from nearby Indiana, as well as southern states.

The DOJ announcement was in advance of Biden’s speech Wednesday on the rise of shootings and other violent crime. The president is expected to unveil additional measures targeting guns and crime, including giving cities the ability to tap funding from his American Rescue Plan to help combat violence, imposing a new zero tolerance policy toward gun dealers who break the law, and investing in community policing, among other initiatives, according to a senior administration official.

Still, stemming the violence in major cities will be far more complicated, involving a delicate balancing act with both the left flank of the president’s party and law enforcement.

Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, are already attempting to pin the rash of violence on the White House, even though increases in gun violence happened during the previous administration. Conservative media outlets are carrying a steady stream of foreboding headlines highlighting the rise of year-over-year shootings and homicides.

Though Biden has proposed increasing police funding — and campaigned on that platform — a Republican National Committee spokesperson blamed the president for failing to hold his own party accountable for pushing to defund the police, “endangering communities and triggering a spike in crime across the country.”

“American small businesses, families, and communities are experiencing the devastating effects of anti-police rhetoric and police department budget cuts at the hands of Democrat politicians,” RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn said.

Republicans attempted to use this playbook in a recent special congressional election in New Mexico, which the Democratic candidate won handedly. But there are early signs that the attacks may be having some impact on Biden’s standing. A new poll in Iowa, for instance, showed just 35 percent of those polled in the state approved of Biden’s approach on criminal justice and 52 percent disapproved.

Concern among Democrats is starting to echo from cities across the country. In the New York City mayor’s race, rising crime has at times dominated the debate. Democrat Eric Adams, a former cop and local official, is the favorite to win the Democratic primary that was held yesterday.

Already, White House officials are pushing back on attempts to paint the violence as a partisan issue, with aides and allies pointing to statistics showing a rise in violent crime during the Trump administration, including a 33 percent surge in homicides in major cities in 2020. In consecutive briefings this week, press secretary Jen Psaki has mentioned that the rise in violent crime started 18 months ago, with some crimes on an upward march for five years.

“When we talk about defunding the police, that has become a dog whistle attack,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton campaign spokesperson. Finney said Trump, who during the protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” inflamed tensions with divisive language. “I would remind them that when Trump had the opportunity, he chose to make it worse by throwing gasoline on the fire when he was president.”

The Republican attacks have focused to a large extent on cities that curtailed their police budgets only to seek to reinstate, or even expand, funding for law enforcement in 2021. Biden himself, aides and allies note, has advocated for more community policing, which focuses on deepening relations with an area to reduce lower-level offenses, even when the tactic fell out of favor with some Democrats.

Yet he’s also had to manage and respond to the liberal wing of his party, which has pressed for tighter standards governing police officers, and the liberalization of local and state prosecutors’ offices — changes that law enforcement officials blame for dispiriting officers and contributing to violence.

“I’ve been in policing 25 years and I don’t remember it ever being so unappealing to new hires,” Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields said Tuesday during a panel discussion of police chiefs in advance of a session with top Justice Department officials.

Shields said the intensified criticism and scrutiny of law enforcement had taken a toll on officers, some of whom complained of protesters coming to their homes.

“It’s really tough because while Biden’s been doing what he clearly politically thought he had to do, at the same time, law enforcement, writ large, has become significantly more conservative,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police and former lobbyist for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which worked with Biden on the 1994 crime bill. “It's an evolving Joe Biden but while he’s evolving in one direction, law enforcement is evolving in another, which heightens the difficulty.”

Biden’s evolution on the topic has, to a degree, mirrored the country’s. What brought him to national prominence in the 80s and 90s was a tough-on-crime approach that was an explicit attempt to rid the Democratic Party of its politically perilous soft-on-crime image. But the major bill he helped shepherd, which put more cops on the streets and included tougher sentencing guidelines, became a complication by the 2020 Democratic primary as the candidates denounced the mass incarceration that resulted from it.

“Whether you like the things that he's done or not, he has led and he has acted and done by his license and by the majorities at the time what seemed like the best course of action. I just hope that he'll channel the Joe Biden of the 80s and 90s and let's roll up our sleeves and go after these criminals,” Pasco said.

Several people in law enforcement said in interviews they are less sympathetic to big city mayors, contending that their own policies are to blame for the increase in gun violence and homicides.

“It’s really the natural and foreseeable consequence of the disempowerment of law enforcement,” said Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and the former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department.

Many of the mayors, in turn, are pleading with the federal government for help, especially as the violence continues to surge as cities have reopened post-pandemic.

“This is at least a way of recognizing that there is a problem and the White House and potentially Congress may have some role in helping cities and states get their arms around it,” Johnson said of Biden’s speech on Wednesday.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/2 ... ies-495609

This environment can have a debilitating effect on the rank and file. The NYPD is now shedding officers faster than it can recruit new ones. Some are retiring early or simply leaving the force. Officers say it is partly a problem of morale.

The NYPD has had its own failures. The 2014 death of Eric Garner during an arrest in which an officer used a chokehold did not result in charges but still resonates here. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who repeatedly condemned Floyd's killing, says police departments have the responsibility to police their own aggressively.

"We have over 6 million calls for service a year," Commissioner Shea said. "We may have negative encounters where we have to arrest people, without force being used, but hundreds of thousands of times a year. Jim, one bad incident can set you back so far and you see that across the country."
Just a few years ago, violent crime across the city was at its lowest in decades.

"We are never going to let it go back to the bad old days. We have a spike in violence right now, as many other cities do," Shea told me. When I asked him if it was controllable, he said, "Absolutely. We're going to need help though. We're going to need help."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/22/us/new-y ... index.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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I wish that they would call this "gang violence" because that's what it is. It's caused by complete vacuums of opportunities in minority neighborhoods in Chicago. We also have segregation that is baked into our political establishment here. Machine politics (of which the current mayor ran against) are what set up the root causes of this sort of violence in the city. These circumstances weren't created overnight, and they won't be solved overnight. A war on "illegal" guns will end just as well as the war on drugs did, as a complete and total failure, and with the Democrats paying the price at the polls nationally for their constant assault on the right to bear arms. I'd prefer not to see that happen, but if they can't pull their heads out of their asses and see the forests for the trees, it is what it is.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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The term 'gang violence' has always had racist connotations. It's used to alienate and dehumanize both victims and perpetrators who belong to other ethnic groups, whether Black, Latin, Hmong, or Sicilian - the intent of the phrase is for you to substitute ethnicity for 'gang' in your head. Like solving for x in algebra.

But yeah, the structural racism component. We've got a mission statement about it. Problem is, there's a whole reactionary front dedicated to punishing people on the basis of their identity and opposed to providing economic stability or opportunity to anyone in their outgroups.

Don't redirect that American Rescue Plan money to policing cities harder. That obviously hasn't worked. Try that mission statement of ours instead.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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NegativeApproach wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:30 pm A war on "illegal" guns will end just as well as the war on drugs did, as a complete and total failure, and with the Democrats paying the price at the polls nationally for their constant assault on the right to bear arms. I'd prefer not to see that happen, but if they can't pull their heads out of their asses and see the forests for the trees, it is what it is.
I agree, they've chosen their path and the consequences await them.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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highdesert wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:56 am
NegativeApproach wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:30 pm A war on "illegal" guns will end just as well as the war on drugs did, as a complete and total failure, and with the Democrats paying the price at the polls nationally for their constant assault on the right to bear arms. I'd prefer not to see that happen, but if they can't pull their heads out of their asses and see the forests for the trees, it is what it is.
I agree, they've chosen their path and the consequences await them.
Agree as well.
Image
Image

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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wings wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:11 am The term 'gang violence' has always had racist connotations. It's used to alienate and dehumanize both victims and perpetrators who belong to other ethnic groups, whether Black, Latin, Hmong, or Sicilian - the intent of the phrase is for you to substitute ethnicity for 'gang' in your head. Like solving for x in algebra.

But yeah, the structural racism component. We've got a mission statement about it. Problem is, there's a whole reactionary front dedicated to punishing people on the basis of their identity and opposed to providing economic stability or opportunity to anyone in their outgroups.

Don't redirect that American Rescue Plan money to policing cities harder. That obviously hasn't worked. Try that mission statement of ours instead.
Ya mean there's no "white" gangs? I guess you never watched Peaky Blinders. hehe My dad is Sicilian and grew up in south Philly in the 30's. You want to talk gangs?
When I read the word I see rainbows. sorry.
I guess we could try these words, band · clan · clique · company · crew · squad · tribe · troop
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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Adams says Democratic lawmakers 'misplaced' priorities on efforts to curb gun violence
On the issue of gun control, Adams also said it the focus should not only be on assault rifles, but also on handguns.

"The numbers of those who are killed by handguns are astronomical and if we don't start having real federal legislation, matched with states and cities, we're never going to get this crisis understand control," he said.
Played to the Democratic base in misusing the term "assault rifles," but I assume whatever he wishes would happen with regard to handguns would entail more restrictions and include nothing to address the root causes of violence.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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Biden directing $2.5B to address mental health and addiction crisis -
President Biden is directing $2.5 billion in funding to address the nation's worsening mental illness and addiction crisis, an official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells Axios.

Why it matters: Confronting the mounting mental health and substance abuse crisis will be an imperative for the Biden administration, even as its primary focus is on combating the broader COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding announced today is designed to increase access to services for individual Americans.
The funding surge comes as the president has yet to fill several key permanent positions in agencies that would lead the charge in combating the drug epidemic, including the Food and Drug Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
His pick to lead HHS, Xavier Becerra, is expected to be confirmed by a close vote.
Between the lines: The funds will be broken down into two components by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

$1.65 billion will go toward the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which gives the receiving states and territories money to improve already-existing treatment infrastructure and create or better prevention and treatment programs.
$825 million will be allocated through a Community Mental Health Services Block Grant program, which will be used by the states to deal specifically with mental health treatment services.
By the numbers: A survey conducted last year and published in August 2020 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 41% of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse related to the pandemic or its solutions, like social distancing.

Before the pandemic, over 118,000 people died by suicide and overdose in 2019. An HHS official says the administration is expecting that number to increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preliminary data out of the CDC indicates that the number of drug overdoses through July 2020 increased by 24% from the year prior.
Flashback: On the campaign trail, then-candidate Biden often spoke about the need to address the mounting mental health and substance abuse crisis in America, an issue that hits close to home. His son, Hunter, has openly discussed his own struggles with addiction.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides 24/7, free and confidential support for anyone in distress, in addition to prevention and crisis resources. Also available for online chat.
https://www.axios.com/biden-funding-dru ... d94a7.html

It's not like Biden is doing nothing.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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Young Black men and teens made up more than a third of firearm homicide victims in the USA in 2019, one of several disparities revealed in a review of gun mortality data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The analysis, titled "A Public Health Crisis in the Making," found that although Black men and boys ages 15 to 34 make up just 2% of the nation's population, they were among 37% of gun homicides that year.

That's 20 times higher than white males of the same age group.

Of all reported firearm homicides in 2019, more than half of victims were Black men, according to the study spearheaded by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Sixty-three percent of male victims were Black.

The contrast is even more stark when the rates were compared with white people: Across all ages, Black men were nearly 14 times more likely to die in a firearm homicide than white men, and eight times more likely to die in a firearm homicide than the general population, including women.

Black women and girls are also at higher risk. Black females had the highest risk of being killed by a firearm than females of any other race or ethnicity, and they were four times more likely to be victims than white females.

"Gun violence has for the longest time been a public health crisis in the Black community," said epidemiologist Ed Clark of Florida A&M University’s Institute of Public Health.

At a Moms Demand Action event, gun control advocates protest violence Aug. 5, 2019, in Auburn, Ala.
The gun violence expert said a "holistic approach" is needed to reduce gun fatalities and injuries.

"That should include really viewing gun violence as a public health issue. The business of public health is population wellness – looking at how we can decrease the disease burden or the threat of injury to the population at large," he said. "And gun violence is definitely a problem that should be looked at through that lens."


After Black males and females, American Indian and Alaska Natives were the next highest-risk group, according to the analysis, followed by Latino and Hispanic people.

Most of children and teens up to age 19 who died that year died by firearm, the study found – 1 in 10 deaths in that age group. That's the second-highest total in two decades.

Evidence suggests gun homicides rose "dramatically" last year during the pandemic, the authors said, but because of what they argued is a lack of timely data, "we won't know the full scale of the problem for many months to come."

The emerging data suggests, the authors wrote, that suicides among Black people rose disproportionately, though the study found the majority of all suicide deaths by firearm, 73%, were white males. White men were more than twice as likely to die by a firearm suicide than others.

Sixty percent of all firearm deaths in 2019 were suicides. In total, 39,707 people died from gun violence that year.

"Despite the limitations, gun death data are the most reliable type of gun violence data currently available – but gun deaths are only the tip of the iceberg of gun violence. Many more people are shot and survive their injuries, are shot at but not hit, or witness gun violence," the analysis reads. "Many experience gun violence in other ways, by living in impacted communities, losing loved ones to gun violence, or being threatened with a gun."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/hea ... 559929001/

Facts are facts, ignoring them does nobody any good!

That said, get manufacturing back into the inner city, provide opportunity, and throw away the key on convicted violent felons of all races.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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The anti-gunners like Everytown...like to mix homicides and suicides because they often involve firearms, because it inflates the number of deaths. Suicides are highest among middle aged white men not living in inner cities.

The famous 538 interactive on Gun Deaths in America.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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Eric Adams, Pres. Joe Biden to meet, discuss gun violence
Brooklyn Borough President and mayoral contender Eric Adams will meet on Monday afternoon with President Joe Biden to discuss curbing gun violence, according to Adams’ office.

Biden’s schedule for Monday notes his meeting on violence reduction will include Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Excited to meet with @POTUS to work together on the #gunviolence pandemic plaguing our streets,” Adams tweeted. “The White House and President Biden are focused on this critical issue to #NYC, and I’m honored to be invited to discuss our ideas for action.”

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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DispositionMatrix wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:55 am Eric Adams, Pres. Joe Biden to meet, discuss gun violence
Brooklyn Borough President and mayoral contender Eric Adams will meet on Monday afternoon with President Joe Biden to discuss curbing gun violence, according to Adams’ office.

Biden’s schedule for Monday notes his meeting on violence reduction will include Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Excited to meet with @POTUS to work together on the #gunviolence pandemic plaguing our streets,” Adams tweeted. “The White House and President Biden are focused on this critical issue to #NYC, and I’m honored to be invited to discuss our ideas for action.”

Democratic theatre for NYC voters. Though Adams hasn't been elected NYC mayor yet, he's the Democratic nominee in a predominately Democratic city. His Republican opponent is Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and a radio broadcaster. Likely result is they'll agree to bolster some federal/state/local task forces in NYC or create new ones or Biden will promise federal funds.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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The meeting in D.C. today with Biden will include Chief CJ Davis of Memphis. Staunch firearm prohibitionist Mayor Muriel Bowser and Chicago Chief David Brown.
Chief Davis, other leaders to meet with President Biden to discuss crime reduction
Shootings and killings are up across the nation, including right here in our city There’s a nationwide push for police reform and Biden said he’s trying to work on that while also addressing the increase in violence across the board.

Last month, WREG told you about the White House’s plan to allow the city of Memphis to use money from the Covid-19 stimulus bill to combat gun violence. Chief Davis responded to that announcement with a statement, in part, “we look forward to utilizing these funds to enhance recruitment strategies, overtime costs for crime reduction initiatives, youth programs, training, and more.”

Biden will also host Attorney General Merrick Garland, and other anti-violence experts at the meeting.

Re: Gun violence and the big city Democratic response

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Big city Democratic politicians are facing constituents worried about increasing crime rates. So in turn they're pounding on the White House's doors asking Biden and fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill to do something.

Democrats in the past pushed to change the gender and race of big city leaders, but politicians are politicians and the new diverse ones still have no solutions. Not that Republican politicians have solutions other than getting tough on crime with more cops.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti was nominated by Biden to be the next ambassador to India. It will take months for him to get confirmed and it looks like the LA City Council will appoint an interim mayor. Garcetti's term expires in 2022, he's termed out.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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