[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by edale

Not saying I 100% agree that this national increase in urban violence/homicide is a result of the protests/riots, but what other theory do you have? The economy? Restlessness from quarantine? Crime had been in fairly steep decline basically everywhere for the last several years. Even the normal hotspots like Chicago had started to improve. Now, all of a sudden, it just skyrockets back up to shocking levels?

Crime definitely spiked in Cincinnati for several years following the riot in 2001 after a police shooting of an unarmed teen. The police said they were taking a less aggressive approach, and homicides soared. I was fearful this would be the result when the defund the police movement really took off. And I generally support the movement, went to a couple BLM protests, etc. But I've seen it play out like this before. A lot of well intentioned liberal folks are seriously naive about the levels of violence in this country and what it takes to control it. It's too late to disarm or dissolve the police-- not when there are hundreds of millions of guns floating around. We can't all just sing kum-ba-yah and get along with the aid of some social workers, because this is a deeply violent country. I fear these violent trends will continue for a while, sadly.

Nailed it.

Also, most people in violent neighborhoods don't want defund either. A Newsweek poll put that number at 81% against