Surging Violent Crime Hurting Louisville and Cities Across America
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding law and order:
“Last week, in my hometown of Louisville, I sat down with law enforcement officials and local leaders to discuss our skyrocketing rate of violent crime.
“The participants came from a wide variety of backgrounds. But everybody agreed the murders, shootings, robberies, carjackings, and overdoses are out of control.
“Louisville recorded 188 homicides in 2021, an all-time record. 24 of the victims were children.
“Just recently, an anti-gun, anti-police activist made national headlines when he tried to assassinate a Jewish, Democratic Louisville mayoral candidate.
“Jefferson County saw more than 500 drug overdose deaths last year – hundreds more than in the years before the pandemic.
“These problems are literally overwhelming the city’s coroners.
“One expert I met with said that violent crime has stolen more years of potential life from Louisville than the pandemic.
“Carjackings are up over 200% in the last two years. We now average more than one carjacking every 48 hours.
“The folks on the ground say they’ve also seen non-fatal shootings and gang activity increasing.
“This crime spree is coming from a tiny minority of Louisville residents. One half of one percent of the population manages to commit an outright majority of all the city’s violent crime. That is possible in large part because many are let back out on the street within days of their arrest.
“Of course, this isn’t just a Louisville problem. We have seen violent crime soar nationwide since the far left’s national anti-police, anti-law-enforcement campaign that began in 2020.
“Cities everywhere are under siege. Here in Washington, in broad daylight yesterday, there was literally an armed robbery right outside the headquarters of the FBI!
“Polls show 69% of Louisville residents oppose the ‘defund the police’ movement and 66% want more police in their neighborhoods. But many Democrats are still unwilling to openly call for law and order in our streets.
“As a result, police officials say their officers feel under siege. They’re worried politicians will not have their back.
“Another huge factor is President Biden’s failure to secure our borders. I was told at last week’s roundtable that every bit of deadly heroin and fentanyl on our city’s streets now comes from across the southern border. As long as this Administration neglects to enforce our laws, every state is a border state.
“We need to secure the border and stop narcotics flooding our neighborhoods.
“We need officials at all levels to back the blue, crack down on crime, and reestablish law and order.
“But the Biden Administration gives us the opposite. They nominated and confirmed a Supreme Court Justice who argued that COVID justified early release for every single prisoner in Washington D.C.
“Just yesterday, the President issued a giant catalog of pardons and commutations, cutting sentence after sentence, particularly for convicted drug criminals.
“They never miss an opportunity to send the wrong signal. And until federal, state, and local Democrats get with the program, innocent people in Louisville and across the country will continue to suffer.”
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Related Issues: COVID-19, Supreme Court, Senate Democrats, Crime, Immigration
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