Pithy social critic David Burge said it best: “Journalism is about covering important stories — with a pillow, until they stop moving.”  

One of the important stories that “journalists” are covering up today is the Trump administration’s increasingly successful efforts to combat violent crime.  At the end of July, the Department of Homeland Security released a report showing that violent crime rates had dropped significantly during the first six months of President Trump’s second term.  Homicides were down 17%; gun assaults were down 21%; aggravated assaults were down 10%; sexual assaults were down 10%; and carjackings were down 24%.  These reductions appear to have continued through the end of the year.  

Assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin was blunt in her assessment of the administration’s success: “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, our law enforcement is working at lightning speed to remove violent criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.  Every single day we are arresting gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and violent predators.  Seventy percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens who have been convicted or charged with a crime.  These arrests and deportations of criminal illegal aliens are having real impact on public safety.”

It turns out that going after criminals whose transgressions against the American public include having illegally entered the country is an effective strategy for reducing violent crimes.  This seems like common sense.  Foreign nationals who do not respect America’s immigration laws should not be expected to respect other laws once they are here.  

The Trump administration has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents the money and support to go after hardened criminals who never should have been allowed access to the American homeland.  In addition, the White House has ordered FBI agents, National Guard troops, and law enforcement officers from numerous federal agencies to act as an additional layer of support in Washington, D.C. and other crime-ridden cities.  

As John R. Lott, Jr. wrote about these policies a few months back, “this isn’t rocket science.  The research is clear that if you want to reduce crime, you need to make it risky for criminals to commit crime.  Higher arrest and conviction rates as well as longer prison terms matter.  Just as making it possible for people to defend themselves also makes a difference.”

A reasonable observer could be forgiven for assuming that the Trump administration’s successful efforts to combat violent crime would be celebrated across the political spectrum.  That has not been the case.  Democrat politicians continue to call ICE agents “Nazis” and “Trump’s Gestapo.”  Democrat governors and legislators continue to claim that President Trump will use National Guard troops to cancel elections and even murder American citizens.  Democrat judges continue to make it as difficult as possible for the Trump administration to deport criminal illegal aliens.  Democrat-sponsored pop-up mobs continue to riot outside ICE offices in defense of foreign nationals who have inflicted serious harm on Americans.

Federal authorities recently arrested a Somali national residing in Minneapolis, Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, for allegedly kidnapping and raping a woman after a Democrat prosecutor and a lenient judge had given the already convicted rapist a slap on the wrist for prior horrific crimes.  Mohamed was connected to numerous kidnappings and rapes — including against minors — when Democrat officials gave the “Minnesota Man” probation and carte blanche to continue hunting and raping women.  

Attorney General Pamela Bondi says the “case illustrates how left-wing soft-on-crime policies and vetting failures put innocent people at dire risk.”  Still, Minnesota Democrats continue to defend the rapist as someone who just hasn’t had enough time to adjust properly to the niceties of American culture.  Is it really too much for Americans to insist that rapists be barred from entry into the United States?

In another recent incident of violent crime, a previously deported illegal alien allegedly stabbed a North Carolina man on the same public transit system on which Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was barbarically murdered in August.  The twice-deported illegal alien from Honduras has a lengthy criminal record in the U.S. but still managed to find refuge in a part of Democrat-controlled North Carolina where suicidal empathy for illegal aliens enables new cases of attempted murder.  

In response to the unnecessary attack on Americans, Republican Congressman Mark Harris did not mince words: “While families beg for safety and police call for backup, the Left is too busy protesting ICE for daring to remove illegal aliens from our streets.  This latest senseless stabbing proves what they desperately want to hide: Democrat policies protect criminals and abandon victims.”  Disgusted with local Democrats’ pro-crime policies, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy angrily concluded, “Apparently, the death of Iryna Zarutska wasn’t enough.”

Violent crime is a symptom of a diseased society.  It is also a sign of a broken legal system.  For too many decades, law-abiding Americans have watched helplessly as Democrat lawmakers, prosecutors, judges, and governors treat criminals as “victims” and forget real victims altogether.  

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson recently argued that imprisoning violent criminals is “racist,” “immoral,” and “unholy.”  Chicago’s deeply unpopular leader told members of the press, “We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.”  New York City’s communist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, has expressed the same sentiment and recently produced a video encouraging New Yorkers to help illegal aliens “stand up to ICE.”  Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who allowed Minneapolis to burn during the George Floyd riots, is now implicated in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme involving his state’s large Somali population.

Democrats ignore crime, aid and abet crime, or directly orchestrate crime.  When crime is a source of income and criminals are a loyal constituency, Democrats have no incentive to protect American citizens from ongoing criminal activities.

What the Trump administration understands is that a small number of criminals inside the United States perpetrate most violent crimes.  Just 2% of counties across America are responsible for half the nation’s homicides.  Criminology research amply demonstrates that less than a tenth of any population commits more than half of all crimes.  And one seminal study shows that 1% of the population accounts for 63% of all violent crime convictions.  

When ICE agents are empowered to remove criminal illegal aliens from American society, law enforcement officers are empowered to go after known criminals, and prosecutors are empowered to put those criminals in prison for lengthy sentences, violent crime rates drop precipitously.  But this kind of commonsense solution requires that local, state, and federal officials actually back the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect civilians from violent felons.  

When Democrat mayors and governors add their voices to the loony leftists calling to “defund the police,” violent crime rates go up.  When Democrat politicians call cops “murderers,” “Klan members,” “slave-catchers,” and “racists,” violent crime rates go up.  When Democrat race-baiters glorify lifetime criminals as “victims” and insist that police officers be prosecuted for doing their jobs, violent crime rates go up.  Basically, when Democrat mayors, governors, prosecutors, lawmakers, and judges hold power over any jurisdiction, violent crime rates go up.

Democrat politicians make all kinds of excuses for their failures to prevent violent crime.  They claim to believe in “rehabilitation,” “restoration,” and “equitable justice.”  They think preventing, deterring, or punishing crime is inherently “racist,” “patriarchal,” and “white supremacist.”  

A simpler explanation might be this: Before Democrats can “fundamentally transform” the United States into a Marxist-socialist hellhole, they must first burn the country to the ground.  Revolutionaries prefer to build their totalitarian “Utopias” on the ashes of tradition, social cohesion, and the rule of law.  From Democrats’ point of view, criminals provide a valuable service by destroying civic peace.  

President Trump and his administration understand the stakes: Either Americans win, or the criminals do.

Image via Pxfuel.