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Op-Ed: To confront America's crime
crisis, get back to basics
[The Center Square] Pat McCrory and
Erich Prince | RealClearWire
Even before the events of
this past week, the United States was already facing a cascading set of
challenges this summer, from surging consumer prices to the spiking of
COVID-19 cases. Then, when Kabul fell, it became all the more clear that
our political class had bungled another task to which it was entrusted. |
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 But then again, should we be surprised? Our politicians cannot
even ensure the safety of Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Oakland – let alone a
foreign capital nearly 7,000 miles away.
Cities across the United States have experienced a wave of violent crime that
has been on the march since last summer and has caused so much needless loss of
life. This ongoing crime wave represents a fundamental failure in governance, in
addition to the vapidness of the sloganeering that brought about this state of
affairs. In the interest, though, of discussing solutions rather than just
harping on the extent of the problem, we would like to put forward three
concrete points that can help curtail our national revival of violent crime.
First, given federal statistics estimating that upwards of 80% of crime in
certain jurisdictions is gang-related, law enforcement and local officeholders
must make dismantling these criminal organizations a chief priority. The extent
of the gang presence in certain cities can be so dramatic that it deters
witnesses from coming forward. For instance, it has been more than a year since
the June 2020 shooting in Charlotte that left four dead and 181 rounds fired
into a block party, yet there still has not been a single arrest.
In Charlotte during the 1990s, however, the focus was always on arresting the
most notorious gang members, which had an outsized impact on reducing crime – a
result that was anticipated by decades of scholarship demonstrating that
targeted “gang takedowns” can result in dramatic reductions in crime.
Next, we must restore trust between police departments and prosecutors, two
component parts of the criminal justice system that should be working together
seamlessly. Many police departments, particularly in cities with progressive
district attorneys such as Philadelphia, are suffering from low morale as trust
erodes between police officers and prosecutors whose focus is on anything but
taking criminals off the streets. It is demoralizing for police officers to go
through the trouble of arresting suspects only to see them released and
reoffending shortly thereafter. This – paired with so much rhetoric hostile to
the police – also makes it more difficult to recruit stellar police officer
candidates.
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Finally, despite the spate of recent think pieces
claiming that it is “racist” to enforce laws against loitering and
similar lower-level offenses, it is essential to recall that social
order is fragile and must be actively maintained. In Charlotte
during the 1990s, for instance, people “tolerated no truancy,” and
this was part of a broader focus on addressing homelessness,
aggressive panhandling, littering and other so-called “quality of
life” issues. The only difference this time around is we need a
greater focus on alternatives to incarceration for certain drug
offenders and those suffering from mental illnesses.
As much as one might be tempted, at first glance,
to dismiss our ongoing crime surge as merely the result of activist
district attorneys like Philadelphia's Larry Krasner or San
Francisco’s Chesa Boudin paired with sloganeering (“Defund the
Police”), these extreme examples sit within a broader climate of
complacency about crime, which paradoxically could only have come
into existence as a result of the relative safety achieved through
the tough-on-crime policies championed from the 1990s until
recently.
 With political leaders on the back foot following recent events in
Afghanistan, they would be wise to recenter competence and begin
addressing the county’s many compounding difficulties. Crime is the
place to start.
Pat McCrory served as the 74th governor of North
Carolina from 2013 to 2017 and the 53rd mayor of Charlotte from 1995
to 2009.
Erich Prince co-founded and runs the online magazine Merion West. |
