While violent crime dropped nationally in 2022, California has once again proven that it is inept at providing its residents with any increase in safety or quality of life.
The recently released FBI data found that California’s violent crime rate increased by 3.8% in 2022 compared to 2021, even as the national violent crime rate dropped 1.6%. This is after California’s national crime rate jumped 8.9% from 2020 to 2021, even as the national rate decreased. While the national violent crime rate is finally below pre-pandemic levels, California’s rate is 13% higher and is going in the wrong direction.
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In other words, California has no answers to slowing violent crime. In some cases, that is because state leaders are incompetent. California hasn’t been able to get a handle on gun crime despite having the toughest gun control laws in the country, mostly because those laws are targeted at law-abiding gun owners instead of the criminals actually breaking the law.
However, California’s biggest problem is that it typically doesn’t even try to address crime. In 2021, California Democrats reduced sentencing enhancements for crimes committed by gang members, the biggest drivers of violent crime in the state. Los Angeles, the largest city in the state, has a pro-criminal “prosecutor” as its district attorney who has overseen a rise in crime with his catch-and-release policies for criminals. Oakland also has a pro-criminal district attorney, and San Francisco is still dealing with the fallout of embracing pro-criminal policies as the city tries to reverse its decay.
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Crime is such an afterthought that several Assembly Democrats blocked a bill that would make child trafficking a serious felony, which led to Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats scrambling to reverse it and push the bill forward. Everyone, including Newsom, thought the law was a no-brainer, but too many Democratic politicians in the state are stuck on a pro-criminal autopilot, proving that there is no pro-criminal policy that won’t be entertained by the Democratic monopoly that runs the state and its major cities.
California Democrats have proven themselves unfit to keep Californians safe on their own streets and in their own homes. Crime is going in the wrong direction even as the country is reversing the post-pandemic trend. California is a failed state in many regards, and the inability (or more accurately, the refusal) to get violent crime under control is one of the most glaring reasons.
