Since when did protecting the most at-risk residents of America’s major inner cities against violent, rampant and often indiscriminate crime become a bad thing?
That question requires at least two answers.
The first answer: For the last six decades or more. As it became evident that Democratic, liberal or far-left policies were having — or, more often, creating — a negative impact on the welfare of many those at-risk citizens of our inner cities, those Americans, and their ever mounting quality-of-life emergencies spawned by those failed policies, were swept under multiple bureaucratic rugs, where they have remained to this day.
The second answer is the most relevant and sadly most destructive at the moment: “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
For months now, President Trump, various Republican politicians and conservative pundits have been correctly stressing that the Democratic leadership and its messaging have been on the wrong end of an 80-20 equation — meaning Republicans have 80 percent of the American people are generally on their side when it comes to the “bread and butter” issues of most concern.
Myself and many others believe that if an honest, unbiased poll is taken of the most at-risk residents of America’s largest failing cities with regard to crime, absence of quality public education, lack of grocery stores, restaurants and other service establishments, and their complete abandonment by city leaders, those results might be 95 to 5 percent in favor of Trump’s policies and immediate real-world solutions.
To that very point, earlier this week, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Governor Pritzker had six murders in Chicago this weekend. 20 people were shot. But he doesn’t want to ask me for help. Can this be possible? The people are desperate for me to STOP THE CRIME, something the Democrats aren’t capable of doing. STAY TUNED!!!”
Are “the people desperate” for Trump to “stop the crime”? That’s the whole point. Ask them.
African American Pastor Corey Brooks — who leads Project H.O.O.D., a violence prevention group on Chicago’s South Side — recently said that his community has already seen 254 deaths in 233 days, with 80 percent of those victims being “Black boys.”
“For anyone in our community to say that things are getting better and that people are safe, that is an outright lie,” he told Fox & Friends.
Also from crime-plagued Chicago, we have Sam Sanchez, owner of a local restaurant and a member of the Illinois Restaurant Association, telling Fox News that he has “been a Democrat for so many years … the city is not safe. For the mayor and the governor to go on TV and use us as statistics, as numbers, I mean, we’re human beings.”
Going back to Fox News once again — and sorry about that to those on the left who hate Fox News, but they are actually giving victims and commonsense voices a platform on this issue — we have Lawrence Jones, a Fox News host and a long-time truth-teller regarding reality in the Black community. For years, Jones has stressed that black residents are desperate to see more police in high-crime areas and are angry at those leaving them and their families unprotected.
The inner-city poor — a majority of whom are Black — are on the front lines of crime and massive dysfunction, and they are being used as cheap disposable pawns by those seeking to attack Trump.
As that pastor, the store owner, Lawrence Jones and countless others believe, Trump has now stepped up in the most dramatic and effective way possible to try and alleviate the constant suffering and daily fears of those in crime-ridden neighborhoods in inner cities across our nation.
Why do so many on the left — in seemingly organized fashion — scream out “no” to Trump’s solution? Could the tragic and twisted truth be that some would rather have at-risk inner-city residents wallow in their misery and fear than swallow their unhinged hatred long enough to admit that Trump is correct about … anything?
Forget the voices of the politicians and the pundits on this issue. Give our most at-risk citizens the respect they deserve and ask them how they feel about increasing security in their neighborhoods.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.