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ALPERN AT LARGE - Like it or not, the era of “Black Lives Matter” vs. “Blue Lives Matter” vs. “All Lives Matter” is OVER.
Ditto for “Defund the Police” and “Zero Bail” and “Social Workers Instead of Police”.
These paradigms are as dead as the victims we’ve seen too often become as a result of these horrible childish blatherings…and most of our nation wants the era of that crazy, left-wing thinking to be done. Kaput. OVER!
Try as they might to deflect this, Democratic leaders such as Governor Newsom in California, Governor Pritzker in Illinois, and Governor Hochul in New York, as well as Mayor Johnson in Chicago and a host of mayors and lower-level Democratic political leaders are either embracing their doom, falling into President Trump’s trap…
…or both. Either way, if we don’t recognize that our cities are becoming too used to crime and chaos.
I know, I know, I know. I’ve heard it again and again and again my whole doggone life:
“That’s Life in the Big City!”
Except that big cities throughout this planet don’t all have the level of chaos and crime we’ve gotten, way, way, WAY too used to in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
Anyone notice that Mayor Bowser of Washington, D.C., and Mayor Adams of New York, is working more with the Trump Administration (no, I don’t think either Bowser or Adams “like” Trump much) and are actually grateful for the push for greater law enforcement?
Anyone notice that Mayor Bass is also slowly and steadily pushing for more law enforcement, and that Governor Newsom is calling forth teams of CHP officers to work with local law enforcement to…finally…lower…the…crime…in…California’s…cities?
In other words:
WHICH IS WORSE, THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS ADMINISTRATION ARE LAYING DOWN THE LAW, OR THAT PRESIDENT BIDEN AND DEMOCRATIC MAYORS AND GOVERNORS DIDN’T AND AREN’T DOING IT ON THEIR OWN?
Enter Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, two of the biggest and most prominent chuckleheads that the Democratic Party has ever produced, and who are choosing the issue of opposing crime as the political hill they want to die on.
Dozens of Chicago residents, mostly black and brown, being shot every weekend?
No problem.
Chicago residents being killed on a regular basis, in a one-party Democratic city renowned not only for its architecture but its #1 rank as the most corrupt city in the nation?
No problem.
President Trump wanting the chaos and crime to be reduced to reasonable and civilized levels in Chicago?
BIG problem, apparently.
Because other than the death and life-destroying crime and chaos overwhelming Chicago and other major cities in our Blue States, the Independent voters among us just might swing other cities and states to the “R” side of local, state, and federal levels in regions who’ve HAD it with crime and chaos.
Oh, but what about those cities in Red States where the crime is just as obnoxious, and perhaps even at higher rates than in Blue States?
Well, President Trump is talking about New Orleans as the next site for the National Guard to be utilized to control crime.
Maybe Memphis will also go down as a potential target for crime reduction. Republican mayors and Democratic mayors alike should be willing for help if they can’t do it on their own.
But the majority of mayors in our cities are Democrats. Not all, and there are some strong Democrats who are tough on crime and are respected all over the political spectrum…but they don’t do with very much of the Democratic Party machine behind them.
Which is very unfortunate. Crime reduction should NOT be the bailiwick of the Republican Party alone. Cities shouldn’t have to descend into chaos and then elect a Republican mayor every few decades to fix the job and be an adult with respect to law and order, safety and security, crime reduction, etc.
But that’s what’s happening right now.
If Gavin Newsom or JB Pritzker want to run for President in 2028, it won’t be antics on social media, lifting weights, losing body fat, or sporting a full head of hair that will or will not get them into the White House in either 2028 or beyond.
It will be their track record of economic and quality of life accomplishments in the cities and states they oversee, and crime control is an essential part of all that.
Neither FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, or LBJ would have tolerated this urban chaos we take for granted (by the way, isn’t the presumption it’s OK for black and brown Americans to die at least a wee bit racist, if not downright godawful a presumption for any of us—let alone a political leader—to have?).
Bill Clinton got a lot of support for being pro-law enforcement, even by those who couldn’t stand him for a variety of reasons. So being a Democrat politician shouldn’t force him/her from confronting the louder and louder question of:
ISN’T CRIME…BAD?
ISN’T LAWLESSNESS…BAD?
ISN’T BEING SHOT…BAD?
So will Newsom, Bass, Pritzker, Hochul, Johnson, and all the other screaming anti-Trump Democratic leaders keep decrying the Orange Man in the White House who’s saying it IS his business about the crime and chaos in our cities?
Or will they be tougher than they’ve been for a decade and show that there’s no need for outside intervention whatsoever…which is really the job they’ve been asked to do (and blown off) for too, too, too many years.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
