Which political party do you blame for America's rising crime rates?

[Suburbia]

Crime in America has risen for the first time since the early 1990s.

Who's to blame?

[thebeloitmoderate]

Neither since both St Louis and Tulsa have seen increases in homicides in 2020 and STL is run by D's in a R state and Tulsa is run by R'S in a deep R state. Like I said this is part of the conservative grievance playbook "rising crime in our cities."
And for all those "what about Chicago?" gun nuts they need to realize their history better. NYC has seen 26 back to back years of 1,000 plus homicides from 1969 to 1995 with 1990-94 being the peak at about 2,245 homicides and 2,000 homicides and falling over the next 4 years. NYC under Giuliani before he went nuts was like the house cleaner to a dirty decaying house with 1997 NYC only having 750 homicides around the same number as in 67 when white flight was happening in the Bronx, Brooklyn. Around the end of the 1990s and the first few years of the 2000s Chicago replaced NYC as the city with the most homicides except 2002 when L.A took the top spot. However from 2004 to 2011 NYC led the nation at homicides by number with numbers in the 500s except 2007 and 2009 with 496 and 471 respectively. NYC finally began to see murders go down in 2012 thanks to the Sandy effect and 2013 when only 335 people were murdered. De Blasio continued this trend in 2014 with 328 homicides with a small increase in 2015 with 352 and 2016 with the same number as in 2013. 17 and 18 was the years in which NYC has only seen fewer homicides since the early 1950s. But in 2019 to 2021 homicides increased after years of decline. Meanwhile Chicago has never seen a year fewer than 400 homicides and with the city hitting a previous 21st century all time high of 762 in 2016. Unless serious leadership not just the mayor but also DA the more they examine the root causes of crime the less homicides will there be.

[YE]

I blame you.

[Xing]

The party I dislike more, of course!

[Ferguson97]

The party that cuts funding for education and social services.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The only right answer is both parties.

R's could easily have reduced crime rates by different priorities on crime and less racial profiling, so setting up crime that aren't really crimes.

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Two words: bronz threaf

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

You know Rs don't pass gun control legislation and protected Rittenhouse and Zimmerman and support stand your ground laws, guns is just as much a problem as drugs in the urban community

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I suppose one could say both parties, or neither. Went with the former, but the latter is just as valid.

[darklordoftech]

The party that considers black people greiving the deaths of their kids to be “rioting”.

[Mr. Smith]

Depends:  Are the Republicans a force of nature that can't be changed? Or are they allowed agency which they continuously abuse?

Given I'm a contrarian and I see the results are disproportionately blaming Dems, I'm going with the latter.

[GregTheGreat657]

The party which listens to the sorts of people who unironically want to abolish the police

[Samof94]

The party that lets white men have guns

[Middle-aged Europe]

The correct answer is of course: MASK MANDATES

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The party which listens to the sorts of people who unironically want to abolish the police

NO, RS HAVE FAILED TO PASS GUN CONTROL MEASURES IF GARLAND WAS ON SCOTUS INSTEAD OF GORSUCH WOULD HAVE BAN ON SOFT MONEY, BAN ON GERRYMANDERING AND BAN ON CONCEALED WEAPONS THATS WHY CONSERVATIVE WANTED TRUMP

WHICH PARTY PROTECTED RITTENHOUSE, Rs like Sir Woodbury bragged about Rittenhouse getting off, offline it's freedom of speech, to do that, BUt online c'mon man

[ElectionsGuy]

All of the loaded partisan responses in this thread from education to guns and not one person has asked the question:

Where is the high crime coming from? What political party governs the areas with high crime rates?

It's not like the rise of crime is specifically caused by one party's elected officials,  but isn't it obvious at this point that Dems nearly uniformly govern the most dysfunctional and crime-ridden cities in America? To the extent it's a problem that needs to be fixed, Democrats need to do the fixing because Republicans don't have any power at those local levels and only have some power through some areas being in red states.

The rise of attention to crime over the past 1-2 years is pretty dramatic and quite a reversal from the 2010's when crime was going down and there was focus on police reform and over-incarceration. I think the tough-on-crime attitude is coming back like we saw during the late 20th century. Eric Adams is only the start.

[VPH]

Both parties.

The Republicans don't really try to address the deeper root causes behind a lot of crime. Instead, they've too often pushed unrestricted capitalism, harming families and communities. On the other hand, large-city 'progressive' Democrats like Krasner, Boudin, Bragg have failed to properly deal with/prosecute crime ex post. That doesn't help either.

[parochial boy]

The correct answer is of course: MASK MANDATES

Well not in those words precisely, but since the start of the Covid crisis crime - and in particular violent crime rates - have been climbing in Canada, in South African, across Europe. In which case it clearly isn't a unique US phenomenon and in that respect focusing entirely on partisan political causes is a little bit parochial and really obscures more than it enlightens.

I mean it isn't really a surprise, that the pandemic has been a source of immense stress, had led people into precarity, has led to all sorts of social tensions - and all those are things that have a pretty well documented link to crime. So not masks, no, but Covid obviously Yes. Question is has this triggered and overall reverse in the trend of recent years, and even if not, how long does the damage last=

[RINO Tom]

The party that cuts funding for education and social services.

This argument falls apart in about two seconds, as would the conservative counterpart.

[dw93]

Both. The GOP turns a blind eye to legitimate abuses and incompetence (and in some cases even encourages them) in law enforcement and opposes any meaningful criminal justice reform, has actively spent the greater part of the last 40 years undermining public education and social services, and, despite current rhetoric on bringing the jobs back by Trump and his ilk, had a greater roll than the Democrats in deindustrializing the country in that same time frame.


The Democrats have over the course of the last decade elected people like Kim Foxx (to use an example from my home state) who refuse to prosecute any non violent crimes and prosecutes very little violent crime. They've also defunded law enforcement in certain parts of the country and have failed to smother the "defund the police movement" in its crib, thus allowing it to (even if only a minority of Democrats actually support it) define the party on the issue of crime. They are also more focused on enacting gun control laws than they are punishing criminals that commit crimes with guns to the fullest extent of the law. Another thing they fail to address is the gang culture that plays a key role in crime as well.

[TheReckoning]

Both or neither, depending on what you mean by “blame.” Both parties certainly haven’t made reducing crime a priority of theirs, if that’s what you mean. Voted neither, though, as criminals tend to not exactly care about if there’s a D or an R next to the name of the current politician in charge.

[Fuzzy Bear]

The Democratic Party are the ones responsible for the anti-police narratives and measures taken.  They are the ones responsible for ending cash bail where it has been ended.  They are the ones who have caused police to stand down during riots and looting.  They are the ones who have called for abolishing police, defunding police, and have acted on this.  They are the ones that have pushed for an end to qualified immunity, which will result in fewer people willing to take on the risks of the job.  They are the ones that have actively proclaimed their support for rioters.  They are the ones that maintain the false narratives of Police as being Genocidal toward minorities, stats be damned. 

Add to that the fact that the cities where crime is rising the most are all controlled by Democrats.  All of them. 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The Democratic Party are the ones responsible for the anti-police narratives and measures taken.  They are the ones responsible for ending cash bail where it has been ended.  They are the ones who have caused police to stand down during riots and looting.  They are the ones who have called for abolishing police, defunding police, and have acted on this.  They are the ones that have pushed for an end to qualified immunity, which will result in fewer people willing to take on the risks of the job.  They are the ones that have actively proclaimed their support for rioters.  They are the ones that maintain the false narratives of Police as being Genocidal toward minorities, stats be damned.  

Add to that the fact that the cities where crime is rising the most are all controlled by Democrats.  All of them.  

Lol this has already been debated on MSNBC, the Rs have not passed fun control measures after Sandy Hook, if Garland was on the Crt instead of GORSUCH we would have a ban on hand guns, I repeat who protected Rittenhouse Rs did and he was an Insurrectionists

Not only did Rs protect him Jerry Jones gave him the VIP treatment

Fact when Mayor Daley was mayor Chicago had the lowest crime rate he had a ban on concealed weapons, fact since 2o1o Crts in IL have gradually let more armed sales in IL

[Person Man]

I blame Democrats for turning demagogic on criminal justice over the past several years. Eric Adams can fix jobs for every third cousin he has for all that I care - if he reverses this downward spiral, that makes him the most valuable man in the party. I'm done voting for Democrats who can't admit that they have a problem.

I also blame Republicans for cozying up to police unions. Much as with Democrats and the teachers' unions, this had helped no one: It has made one party more tolerant of incompetence and abuses within the system, while the other has come to view the system itself as a natural part of its political opposition.

As usual, no one stands up for real standards of professionalism. At best those values get lip service between rounds of whichever neliberal reforms are in fashion with the ruling party.

There's a broader undercurrent of antisocial behavior in which both major parties are deeply implicated, but this post addresses the more direct answer.

The police need to do their jobs, some people need to let them do their jobs and others need to stop letting them not do their jobs and whatever they want instead.