New Ebook Explodes the Myths about Crime Surge

LOS ANGELES - March 1, 2022 - PRLog -- "Poll: 75% say 'Defund the Police' caused violent crime wave."

This headline screamed out in a Fox News report in February 2022. The poll could not be easily brushed off as just more Fox News right-wing scare stuff on crime. Or brushed aside as yet another right-wing attack on Black Lives Matter.

The poll was conducted by the trusted news and opinion publication Politico. The overwhelming majority of Americans believed violent crime was a mortal peril. They also blamed Black Lives Matter and other anti-police abuse protesters and assorted liberal advocacy groups for the alleged violent crime spike.

The poll findings point to one other public belief. Most Americans want more, not fewer police. They want more, not less, funding for the police. They want more not less tough law enforcement, and incarceration.

In Defund the Police: Playing politics with Crime, political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson takes a hard look at the great debate over crime, criminal justice reform, and policing in America. He separates fact from fiction about crime surges. He examines the moves to recall progressive District Attorneys such as Los Angeles County DA George Gascon. Finally, he strikes a balance between the legitimate public fears over crime and the illegitimate political manipulation of those crime fears

Hutchinson notes that President Biden felt the public heat over violent crime even before he won office. He backpedaled fast during the 2020 presidential campaign and in the months after from any hint that he supported defunding the police.

Biden was harshly slammed by progressives, liberal Democrats, and police protest activists for pandering to the clamor for tough law enforcement. They contended that instead of pouring massive dollars into more cops, weapons, and prisons, the money should be spent on more job, education, and service programs for poor underserved communities. This they contended is the best answer to reducing violent crime.

Hutchinson observes that other liberal criminal justice reform groups went further and charged that the crime scare is driven by Fox News and a right-wing echo chamber to discredit Black Lives Matter and the movement for criminal justice reform. They further alleged that the spike in violent crime has been wildly exaggerated not for safety purposes but for political purposes. However, the numbers don't lie. In 2020 there was a significant spike in violent crime.

Defund the Police: Playing Politics with Crime provides an in-depth look at the causes of crime fears and the political manipulation of those fears. He warns that playing politics with crime is fraught with political and public peril. Above all, he presents a reasoned, balanced assessment of how to end the manipulation of public hysteria over crime.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TN2KJD9