WASHINGTON, June 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Joe Biden has unveiled a plan that includes funding more police to combat a nationwide surge in homicides, which he blamed on lax gun control.
He said officials in high crime areas can hire more law-enforcement personnel using coronavirus relief funding.
Biden’s crime-fighting strategy calls for curtailing rogue gun dealers and firearms trafficking.
Announcing his five-point strategy at the White House on Wednesday, the president urged cities and states to use $350bn of funding from a Covid-19 relief bill on public safety efforts, including adding more police officers, even beyond pre-pandemic levels.
“It means more police officers, more nurses, more counsellors, more social workers or community violence interrupters to help resolve issues before they escalate into crimes,” the president said.
Unless tamed, the crime wave is likely to become a major issue ahead of next year’s congressional mid-term elections.
During his remarks at the White House, the president also took aim at armed insurrectionists, saying they would “need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons” to take on the US government.
The Biden administration has proposed gun control as a remedy for violent crime, although Democratic bills in Congress to limit Americans’ access to firearms have been blocked by Republicans.
The administration’s strategy also proposes investing in community violence intervention programmes, employment opportunities and summer activities for teenagers and young adults, and support for formerly incarcerated Americans re-entering their communities.
The president recently hosted several big city mayors at the White House for a discussion on crime prevention.
In March, the FBI released preliminary 2020 statistics showing a significant jump – 25% – in murders from the year before. So far, the upward trend has continued into 2021.
The bureau will release its official numbers in September. If early projections bear out, it will be one of the largest homicide increases ever reported.
Some analysts have blamed the wave of homicides on the Covid-19 pandemic, although research indicates that global crime rates outside the US fell or were stable amid all the lockdowns.
Other analysts see the cause as low police morale after the murder of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the ensuing civil unrest that swept US cities.
But even with this steep rise, the murder rate is still far lower than in the early 1990s, when it was almost double the current figure.
And crime overall – including rapes, robbery and other property crime – dropped by about 6% in 2020, among the largest decreases on record.
Criminal statisticians will point out that the current murder rates are still low compared to previous decades, including the 1990s, when Biden – then a senator – made “getting tough on crime” one of his top issues.
Republicans have offered an explanation – that the anti-law-enforcement rhetoric and “defund the police” efforts from last year’s Black Lives Matters demonstrations have led to the current situation.
On Wednesday, Biden offered a counter-argument, that lax gun regulations are to blame, creating an environment where even minor arguments can turn deadly.
He also promised to boost funding for the police – a move that may anger some on the left.
On the eve of Biden’s speech, the Department of Justice announced a new team aimed at tackling gun trafficking in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC and San Francisco. — NNN-AGENCIES
