(Originally published in American Thinker.)
Major cities in the country continue to see their quality of life decrease as crime increases. It is not only violent crime that is causing problems, either.
As of mid-September, Oakland, California, had recorded 11,417 motor vehicle thefts or nearly 41 car thefts a day. In just the week of Oct. 2 – 8, 125 cars were stolen, according to the Oakland Police Department crime data. This does not include the 549 carjackings for the year, which falls under robberies.
Overall, car thefts are up 50 percent over 2022, and carjackings are up 21 percent.
As bad as these numbers are, they may actually be worse. Police offices told CBS in Oakland that they believed the numbers to be even higher than reported because many residents have given up even reporting crimes because they can’t get help.
“While the number is pretty staggering, I wish I could say that I was truly surprised or am truly surprised for that matter because of the lack of leadership in Oakland city government and the lack of accountability,” Eugene Kopman, a resident of Oakland, told CBS. “My car was parked at the Coliseum BART. I took my son to a baseball game last Sunday and I came back — the car was gone.”
This is what happens when a city government doesn’t support its police force and instead, tries to enforce the law with progressive policies. Oakland is just one of many cities experiencing the same thing. Rather than supporting the police as they enforce the law, governments are hindering the police’s ability to act, prosecutors aren’t prosecuting crimes, and liberal judges are sentencing them for their crimes.
There are so many examples out there, and many of them are in worse shape than Oakland. The preponderance of evidence clealry asserts that a “soft on crime” approach doesn’t work.
Residents of these cities have had enough. Many of them are moving out, which is unfortunate because they often take their failed ideas on justice and continue to try and implement them in other cities.
Residents who remain in the city often try to reverse the direction their governments have taken. They have pressured their mayors and district attorneys to increase the size of the police force so that officers can respond more quickly to crimes.
Easier said than done. Progressive policies have crippled police forces in many jurisdictions, and officers do not want to work for those police departments that are still hampered by failed policies. Residents in Oakland were particularly frustrated that the city failed to submit an application to the California government to receive additional funds that would have gone to help the overwhelmed police force.
“The buck stops with the mayor. This is the mayor’s fault.” Oakland NAACP President Cynthia Adams told CBS.
It’s not just motor vehicle thefts in the city, either. Overall crime in Oakland is up 26 percent over 2022, and crime in 2022 was up nearly 20 percent over 2021.
City life is no way to live.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
