An old sentiment has become a popular online saying these days: “Strong men lead to good times. Good times lead to weak men. Weak men lead to bad times.”

America’s cities had good times for a couple of decades. These days, we seem to be reaping the bad times caused by the weak men brought about by those good times.

To be more precise, aggressive policing helped make our cities safer. Safer cities made citizens and politicians less concerned with tougher policing. In came the criminal justice reform and soft policing and prosecuting that made our cities less safe.

After crime fell, we legalized crime, and so crime rose again.

“Law-breakers don’t respect law enforcement — and for good reason: They know that, thanks to misguided criminal justice ‘reform,’ they can re-offend over and over with utter impunity,” former New York City officer Michael Alcazar writes in a recent essay.

The early “reforms” included abolishing bail and restricting judges’ ability to detain suspects before trial. In Washington, D.C., the city council voted to decriminalize fare evasion. Fare evasion, shockingly, became the norm among young men.

It was made clear that shoplifters shouldn’t be charged (you don’t want to ruin the life of some child who desperately needs … $300 worth of shampoo) or confronted (these poor waifs will likely beat the crap out of you).

COVID made masking normal, and questioning a mask was somehow racist.

Then, after an officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd and cities erupted in riots and protests, the political and media class decided the rioters were right and good.

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All the while, we decriminalized drugs. We don’t have the 1980s level of crime, but we do have record-high disregard for officers. This is not a recipe for peace and prosperity in our cities.

If you want to see a bright spot in all this, recall that bad times bring about strong men.