California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) appears not to have learned much from the recall of soft-on-crime San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin (D), instead pushing the blame for rising crime onto Republicans.
Newsom appeared on the California-based podcast “The Issue Is” on Saturday, calling Boudin’s recall “so predictable.” But, the leftist governor deflected when addressing both his party and state’s role in influencing crime.
Newsom told host Elex Michaelson:
What’s interesting is how focused we are on a number of California cities. I mean, there was just an analysis of the 65 cities with the highest murder rates. California had two cities. L.A. and San Francisco weren’t even on the list. And two-thirds of the cities were in Republican states. I mean, you look at the murder rates in the United States of America — this is not to abdicate any of our responsibility here in California — we own it, and we have to take responsibility for doing more, better, but what’s going on with the red state murder problem in America? Eight of the top states with the fastest-growing murder rates in America are Republican states — really nine, when you consider one of those two, happens to be Georgia. That’s a fact.
You’ll notice that Newsom obfuscates when he discusses this alleged “red state murder problem,” as opposed to a ‘red town’ or ‘red city’ murder problem. This is because, after comparing city-to-city, Newsom’s argument totally falls apart.
Though it’s unclear from Newsom’s comments exactly which list he referenced, it was likely CBS News's ranking of 65 cities by murder rate. Of these 65 cities, 52, including the entire top ten, have Democratic mayors. A mere six are led by Republicans, and even these six are hardly bastions of conservatism.
Contrary to what Newsom might imply, topping the list were cities that have been dominated by Democrats and their soft-on-crime policies for years – among them are St. Louis, Mo., Baltimore, Md., Birmingham, Ala., and Detroit, Mich.
Newsom’s latest comments appear to be a retread of similarly nonsensical claims made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Ocasio-Cortez, in a snarky reply to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Twitter, said, “According to CBS News out of the Top 10 deadliest cities in America, 7 of them are in Republican-run states.” She then cited the aforementioned CBS News list last Thursday.
According to CBS News out of the Top 10 deadliest cities in America, 7 of them are in Republican-run states.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 10, 2022
Now, follow-up question: were you one of the members who sought a pardon after Jan 6th? I didn’t. https://t.co/MM2goYl7CB
These comments illustrate the stunning level of ignorance coming from the left on the subject of federalism.
When it comes to high crime levels in specific communities (especially when the crime rates of these communities diverge so much from other parts of the state), it only makes sense to analyze the actions that mayors, city officials and district attorneys are taking before passing the buck onto state or federal officials.
Though governors can assist local police forces, and, in Newsom’s case, probably should more often, chalking up high urban crime rates to Republican governors is simply barking up the wrong tree – perhaps deliberately so.
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