NEW YORK — America’s surge in grotesque, random mayhem has become a coast-to-coast crime epic.
•Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and 10 other cities set new murder records last year. Democrats control all 12 locales.
•Police accuse Shawn Laval Smith, a violent "homeless" man, of fatally stabbing UCLA graduate student Brianna Kupfer on January 13, while she worked in a Hollywood furniture store.
•Detroit’s Devonne Marsh is charged with setting his girlfriend on fire. She was six months pregnant, with twins. Despite this atrocity and his criminal record, Marsh was released on $5,000 bond.
•According to Atlanta police, during a drive-by shooting, rap-sheet-bearing Dequasie Little’s stray bullet killed six-month-old Grayson Fleming-Gray as he relaxed in his car seat.
•"Homeless" people, among others, shoved five New Yorkers onto subway tracks last month — one fatally. Thirty people were muscled onto NYC’s underground rails in 2021 versus 26 in 2020 — up 15.4%.
•Officials say that Keber Martinez, 25, opened fire and injured a man Jan. 25 in a Bronx hospital emergency room.
•Frank Deleon, Jr., 17, is charged with fatally shooting Diamond Alvarez, a 16-year-old straight-A student, 22 times as she walked her dog through a Houston park on Jan. 11.
No big deal: He was arrested Jan. 24 and freed on bail the next day.
•According to the Gun Violence Archive, 26 police officers were shot nationwide between Jan. 1 and Jan. 29, four fatally. These included five NYPD officers shot last month — among them Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27. Five-time arrestee Lashawn McNeil shot them and then finished them off execution style during a Harlem domestic squabble to which they responded. Police gunfire ended McNeil’s life. In 2021, 372 police officers were shot, 68 lethally.
This unbridled bedlam comes courtesy of the Democratic Left. Their peaceful, easy feeling toward criminals no longer is cute. It now breeds death.
In a closely related problem, violent criminals often are "homeless." This epitomizes the tyranny of euphony.
With some exceptions, "homelessness" is not an absence of housing but an abundance of insanity. Most sidewalk dwellers are profoundly mentally ill, drug addicts, and/or severe alcoholics.
Focusing on their housing is like giving skin cream to those with congestive heart failure. Doctors and patients might soothe themselves by saying that the latter have eczema, even as they succumb to coronary disease.
It should surprise no one when cities build "homeless" dwellings, yet their street corners remain clogged with vagrants. They do not need “affordable housing.” They require mental hospitals, brave psychiatrists, and healing pharmaceuticals.
Few admit this. Fewer do anything about it. Instead, America pretends that lower rents will fix this disaster.
Dream on.
Beyond addressing "homelessness" rather than lawlessness, the Left’s autonomic response is to control guns, not illegal shooters. Remove the latter, and guns suddenly become inert.
After Brianna Kupfer’s murder, why didn’t Leftists demand knife control? Given Gotham’s wave of subway shovings, why not hand control?
These palliatives miss the point: America needs criminal control and, whenever possible, criminal elimination.
The time is now to arm the American people: Law-abiding citizens deserve maximum freedom to acquire guns, defend themselves against criminals and, when appropriate, erase them.
Too bad it has come to this. But here we are.
Cops are handcuffed. They are eager to serve. Alas, the Democrat Left’s robust campaign to defund, demoralize, and demonize the police has worked beautifully.
On a good day, decent, industrious, dedicated police officers patrol the streets with their tails between their legs. Others stay in their squad cars and observe crime. Why get involved? Who needs the headaches, lawsuits, dismissals, and shrill screams of "Racist!"
Numerous Left-wing "prosecutors" proudly refuse to enforce the law. Real-life Dr. No —the über-evil George Soros – sponsors Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, Los Angeles’ George Gascon, and others. They believe that D.A. means “defense attorney."
Bragg explained Jan. 8 the root cause of "the person who’s on their [sic] eighth arrest," perhaps for assault. "We didn’t connect that person to services."
Eureka! Welfare cures crime!
With the entire criminal-justice system in collapse, the last resort is to let defenseless Americans pack heat. The mere presence of armed citizens will deter some criminals. The hardier weeds can be yanked out, once and for all, with sober aim and the swift infusion of lead.
Police say a violent lunatic named Martial Simon, 61, fatally shoved Michelle Go, 40, onto Times Square’s subway tracks on Jan. 15. If Go were armed, she could have liquidated the "homeless" ex-con who allegedly murdered her and later declared: "I’m God." Simon never would have bothered anyone again. Few would miss this filthy punk who stole Go’s life.
Consider Darrell Brooks, the wacko who drove his SUV over 68 people in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Nov. 28, 2021 killing six. If an earlier victim on Brooks’ 50-page rap sheet had neutralized him years ago, 62 people would be unwounded and six more undead. And bloodthirsty Brooks would be in a box beneath six feet of dirt.
Does anyone prefer the carnage that occurred?
Also, many gun owners merely wear their weapons.
Conspicuous, holstered handguns can repel assailants — as garlic spooks vampires. Potential crime victims sometimes brandish their weapons. Potential crime victims sometimes brandish their weapons. Like ballastic missiles, firearms need not go off to keep the peace.
Like ballistic missiles, firearms need not go off to keep the peace.
This policy can be implemented with sensible precautions: Gun-permit applicants should be law-abiding, sane, and trained in firearms safety. Guns are serious instruments and should be handled accordingly.
But within these common-sense parameters, the next step cannot come too soon:
Arm the American people!
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. Read Deroy Murdock's Reports — More Here.
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