Democrat policies following ‘Defund the Police’ movement linked to ‘crime epidemic’: House Judiciary report

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) posted on X: “This report highlights how rogue prosecutors in Democrat-run jurisdictions downgrade serious crimes, refuse to prosecute the laws on the books, and put violent criminals ahead of innocent communities.”

“Violent crime is out of control in major Democrat-run cities across America. Biden-Harris allies like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner are releasing violent criminals back on the streets with no regard for the alarming rise in violent crime or safety of their cities,” Jordan continued, adding that “Americans are less safe under the Biden-Harris Administration and their pro-criminal policies.”

The testimony in the report is drawn from the Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, as the two groups assessed the reasons for escalating crime in major American cities.

“As prominent Democrats – up to and including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris – have embraced the misguided and dangerous ‘defund the police’ movement, liberal special interests worked to elect far-left prosecutors in Democrat-run cities,” the report says. They in turn “acted to reduce and repurpose funding for police forces and to implement radical laws that keep criminals on the streets,” the report states, adding that “[t]hese pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement policies endanger all Americans and make American communities less safe.”

The report argues that Democratic-run cities which defunded their police forces had a subsequent spike in both violent and non-violent crime. "For example,” the report notes, “Democrat-run New York City cut its police department budget by $1 billion in 2020, and major crimes surged by 23 percent in 2022 when compared to 2021.” Philadelphia is also used as an example, where the city reduced its police budget by $33 million and saw a dramatic rise in homicides in 2022.

“Although Democrats claim that violent crime is decreasing, crime rates are still far higher than pre-pandemic levels, and crime continues to wreak havoc on American communities,” the report states.

Committee testimony also looked into “rogue prosecutors in Democrat-run jurisdictions” who “downgrade serious crimes, refuse to prosecute the laws on the books, and put criminals ahead of communities.” These “far-left” DAs are trying to “fundamentally change the criminal justice system,” the report says, in order to put the rights of victims over those of criminals, while refusing “to prosecute entire categories of crime, systemically downgrade felonies to misdemeanors, and refuse to request bail for criminals.”

The report also focuses on bail reform that has been popular in some Democratic-run cities. “These laws and policies eliminated cash bail, restricted judges from imposing constraints on dangerous criminals, and even mandated the immediate release of criminals back into the community,” the report states.

This comes as there was another recent report that said violent crime is on the rise throughout America, despite the repeated Democratic talking-point saying it is falling. In some urban centers such as in New York, some voters in the city's suburbs are shifting from supporting the Democratic Party to GOP nominee Donald Trump, as he has shared a law-and-order message, resonating with citizens who agree that the Biden-Harris administration has failed to keep crime down, while also allowing millions of illegal immigrants to cross the southern border.