It's a trick question. Multiple liberal cities worked hard last year to break their previous homicide records. And the Democrat leaders could not have done it without the help of race-baiting agitators and their left-wing media allies. The credit really belongs to the entire Democratic establishment and their disdain for law and order.
Milwaukee broke its 1991 homicide record with an impressive 189 homicides last year, beating the previous record by more than 14 percent and nearly doubling the number of homicides the year before. Homicides skyrocketed over the summer, at the height of Black Lives Matter riots and the media's dismissal of the widespread violence and destruction in liberal cities across America. The cost for the breakdown of law and order, greenlit by Democrats and the media, was paid for with the lives of mostly young black men.
(Via the Journal Sentinel)
Nationally, homicides increased by 42% during the summer and 34% in the fall compared to 2019, according to a November study of 28 cities by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice.
But it’s not just fatal violence that skyrocketed in Milwaukee in 2020. As of Dec. 16, nonfatal shootings had already victimized more than 700 people in Milwaukee, a 64% increase from 2019, according to the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission. That also ended a two-year decline.
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In contrast, when Milwaukee set its previous homicide record of 165 in 1991, the city was still in the throes of the crack epidemic and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was finally apprehended.
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Young Black males account for more than 80% of the homicide victims in 2020, according to the Homicide Review Commission. And the hardest hit parts of the city, where fatal and nonfatal shootings victimized between 40 and 65 people in each neighborhood — Old North Milwaukee, Park West, North Division and Harambee — lie on the city's north side.
Investigators in 2020 struggled to keep up with the caseload while also navigating hurdles caused by the pandemic. As of Dec. 24, Milwaukee police had a 50% clearance rate in 2020, when in the past three years that number hovered between 75% and 78%.
A case is considered cleared when someone is arrested or when a suspect is identified but cannot be arrested. A criminal conviction is not necessary, and clearance rates include all homicide arrests in a given year, no matter when the crime occurred.
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From 2010 through 2014, Milwaukee eclipsed 100 homicides annually just once before a spike of 147 in 2015 and 142 the following year, according to police. Those numbers continued to trend downward to 97 in 2019.
Leftists want to blame the crime wave on the pandemic, as if the virus causes people to become homicidal. The lockdowns, also pushed by Democrats, might make people lose their minds but condoning violence, demonizing the police, and making heroes out of people who break the law is a recipe for disaster.
With so many young black males murdering one another, one would expect a social movement named Black Lives Matter to take notice. But nope. Instead, we had protests and wild accusations about systemic racism and racist white cops that were a.) not true, and b.) a distraction from the real and much bigger problems facing the black community. But the race-baiting was sure good for Democrats looking to shore up the black vote in an election year.
