Biden Pushes Effort To Combat Rising Tide Of Violent Crime

[Shabibilicious]

Biden pushes effort to combat rising tide of violent crime

• 

APTOPIX Biden

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security Adviser and Deputy National Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

COLLEEN LONG, JONATHAN LEMIRE and MICHAEL BALSAMO

Tue, June 22, 2021, 4:30 PM

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to lay out new steps to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, with a particular focus on gun violence, as administration officials brace for what they fear could be an especially turbulent summer.

The worry over crime is real and believed to be fueled by the pandemic, which has created economic hardship, displacement and anxiety. But there are also tricky politics at play. The spike in crime has become a Republican talking point and has been a frequent topic of conversation on conservative media.

White House aides believe that Biden, with his long legislative record on crime as a former senator, is not easy to paint as soft on the issue, and the president has been clear that he is opposed to the “defund the police” movement, which has been effectively used against other Democrats to paint them as anti-law enforcement. But Biden also is trying to boost progressives' efforts to reform policing. And while combating crime and reforming the police don't have to be at odds with each other, the two efforts are increasingly billed that way.

 

In a speech on Wednesday, Biden is to unveil a series of executive orders aimed at reducing violence, and he will renew his calls for Congress to pass gun legislation, aides said. Ahead of the speech, the Justice Department announced new strike forces aimed at tackling gun trafficking in five cities.

The White House also planned to convene a meeting Wednesday with Attorney General Merrick Garland; the Democratic mayors of Baltimore and Miami-Dade County and the Republican mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota; the Democratic attorney general of New Jersey; the police chief in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and community activists. White House staff members have also been in touch with legislators and congressional staff.

“Yes, there need to be reforms of police systems across the country. The president is a firm believer in that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. "But there are also steps he can take as president of the United States to help address and hopefully reduce that crime. A big part of that, in his view, is putting in place gun safety measures ... using the bully pulpit but also using levers at his disposal as president.”

In April, Biden announced a half-dozen executive actions on gun control, including cracking down on “ghost guns,” homemade firearms that lack serial numbers used to trace them and that are often purchased without a background check.

There is also new federal funding from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package directed toward municipal governments, allowing them to keep more police officers on the street. Aides said Biden would also urge a swift confirmation of his choice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

But Biden is limited in his power to act alone. The House passed two bills requiring background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and allowing an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. But that legislation faces strong headwinds in the Senate, where some Republican support would be needed for passage.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday that she has seen double-digit increases in murder and violent crime nationwide.

“It is staggering. It is sobering,” she said at a violent-crime forum held by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum. “And it’s something that DOJ is committed to do all we can to reverse what are profoundly troubling trends.”

Monaco said the Justice Department would launch strike forces in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to help reduce violent crime by addressing illegal gun trafficking, building on an initiative begun last month.

If the federal effort sounds familiar, it is. Federal operations have often been launched to help cities facing spiking crime. President Donald Trump announced something similar last year when he and then-Attorney General William Barr launched Operation Legend, named for a boy who was shot to death in Kansas City, Missouri. In that effort, hundreds of investigators were deployed to nine cities with rising crime, prioritizing the arrest of violent criminals.

Trump, though, laid blame for the spike in crime on protesters who demonstrated against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He claimed that Democrats were allowing crime to run amok in their cities. But despite pockets of violence in both Democratic- and Republican-run cities, the protests were mostly peaceful. A Harvard Radcliffe Institute study found there were no injuries reported in 97% of the events. Still, Republican leaders continue to echo Trump's claims.

And while crime is rising — homicides and shootings are up from the same period last year in Chicago; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Houston — violent crime overall remains lower than it was a decade ago or even five years ago. And most violent crimes plummeted during the first six months of the pandemic, as people stayed indoors and away from others.

Crime started creeping up last summer, a trend criminologists say is hard to define and is likely due to a variety of factors such as historic unemployment, fear over the virus and mass anger over stay-at-home orders. Public mass shootings have also made an alarming return.

“Many of us — if not most of us — are seeing a rise in crime, while at the same time, we’re hearing calls for reform,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said of cities in remarks at the police forum. “And some of those calls are to the extreme of dismantle and defund ... while all of the same time we’re sworn to protect the people.”

Interest in guns, too, is on the rise. The number of people stopped from buying guns through the U.S. background check system hit an all-time high of more than 300,000 last year amid a surge of firearm sales. And several states have passed laws barring federal gun control laws from taking effect.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said lax gun laws and the presence of illegal guns on the streets are compounding the violence.

“When everyone can have a gun, they tend to,” she said. “And it just leads to more illegal guns on the street.”

The Justice Department recently announced a sweeping investigation into the Louisville police over the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police during a raid at her home. A similar investigation was launched into the Minneapolis police force.

The rise in violence comes against the backdrop of a national debate on policing and as a police reform bill is being crafted in Congress. Psaki on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that a presidential event focused on cracking down on crime would undermine that legislative effort.

As a senator, Biden wrote several major anti-crime packages, including a 1994 bill that contained provisions now viewed by some as an overreaction to the crime spikes in the 1980s and 1990s. Critics say those bills helped lead to mass incarceration of Black Americans, and Biden’s involvement became a flashpoint in his 2020 campaign.

Biden has expressed second thoughts about some aspects of the legislation, and he has acknowledged its harmful impact on many Black Americans. But he and his allies still hold out the law's provisions to address domestic violence, ban assault weapons and finance community policing.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-pushes-effort-combat-rising-203054908.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

DOJ launches effort to combat gun trafficking in five major cities

Erin Doherty

Tue, June 22, 2021, 3:45 PM

 

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday its plan to combat illegal gun trafficking in five U.S. cities by creating a new firearms trafficking strike force.

The big picture: The announcement comes as President Biden is expected to discuss a broader crime-fighting strategy Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

 

 

Between the lines: Law enforcement officials will seek to interrupt the flow of guns illegally brought into New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C., places where officials say a substantial portion of guns used in crimes come from elsewhere, per the WSJ.

• The strike forces will be led by U.S. Attorneys who will coordinate with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and with state and local law enforcement partners.

What they're saying: "Working with our local partners to tackle violent crime is one of the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release.

• “Our firearms trafficking strike forces will investigate and disrupt the networks that channel crime guns into our communities with tragic consequences," Garland said.

Driving the news: Murder rates have been trending up over the last year in large and small U.S. cities, Axios' Bryan Walsh reports.

• A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of 2021 collected by the crime analyst Jeff Asher indicates murders are up 18% over the same period in 2020.

https://news.yahoo.com/doj-launches-effort-combat-gun-194535701.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

Perhaps law enforcement shouldn't be defunded.....

 

Criminals not allowed back on the streets with no bail needed.....

 

And who knows what is coming across the open Southern border....

 

Seems kind of simple to me......    CL 

[nstoolman1]

4 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

DOJ launches effort to combat gun trafficking in five major cities

 

Erin Doherty

Tue, June 22, 2021, 3:45 PM

 

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday its plan to combat illegal gun trafficking in five U.S. cities by creating a new firearms trafficking strike force.

The big picture: The announcement comes as President Biden is expected to discuss a broader crime-fighting strategy Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

 

 

Between the lines: Law enforcement officials will seek to interrupt the flow of guns illegally brought into New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C., places where officials say a substantial portion of guns used in crimes come from elsewhere, per the WSJ.

• The strike forces will be led by U.S. Attorneys who will coordinate with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and with state and local law enforcement partners.

What they're saying: "Working with our local partners to tackle violent crime is one of the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release.

• “Our firearms trafficking strike forces will investigate and disrupt the networks that channel crime guns into our communities with tragic consequences," Garland said.

Driving the news: Murder rates have been trending up over the last year in large and small U.S. cities, Axios' Bryan Walsh reports.

• A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of 2021 collected by the crime analyst Jeff Asher indicates murders are up 18% over the same period in 2020.

https://news.yahoo.com/doj-launches-effort-combat-gun-194535701.html

 

GO RV, then BV

 

 

They need to start with Holder and Obama. Fast and Furious got a Border Patrol agent killed. 

[Shabibilicious]

13 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

 

 

They need to start with Holder and Obama. Fast and Furious got a Border Patrol agent killed. 

 

Whatever it takes to remove illegal weapons from the street.

 

GO RV, then BV 

[nstoolman1]

24 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Whatever it takes to remove illegal weapons from the street.

 

GO RV, then BV 

Even if it means the 2 A rights of the many are violated. Gotcha. 

[patrickgold]

4 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

DOJ launches effort to combat gun trafficking in five major cities

 

Erin Doherty

Tue, June 22, 2021, 3:45 PM

 

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday its plan to combat illegal gun trafficking in five U.S. cities by creating a new firearms trafficking strike force.

The big picture: The announcement comes as President Biden is expected to discuss a broader crime-fighting strategy Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

 

 

Between the lines: Law enforcement officials will seek to interrupt the flow of guns illegally brought into New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C., places where officials say a substantial portion of guns used in crimes come from elsewhere, per the WSJ.

• The strike forces will be led by U.S. Attorneys who will coordinate with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and with state and local law enforcement partners.

What they're saying: "Working with our local partners to tackle violent crime is one of the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a press release.

• “Our firearms trafficking strike forces will investigate and disrupt the networks that channel crime guns into our communities with tragic consequences," Garland said.

Driving the news: Murder rates have been trending up over the last year in large and small U.S. cities, Axios' Bryan Walsh reports.

• A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of 2021 collected by the crime analyst Jeff Asher indicates murders are up 18% over the same period in 2020.

https://news.yahoo.com/doj-launches-effort-combat-gun-194535701.html

 

GO RV, then BV

Close the borders! Give funding back to our officers. Vote out the leadership in the Blue States.  Remember crime increased in the summer of 2020 more so than any other time, this is why crime is up. 

Open and help businesses 

create jobs.  Label the correct organization as domestic terrorist.  Keep the criminals in jail and so much more could be added to the list.

[patrickgold]

12 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

Even if it means the 2 A rights of the many are violated. Gotcha. 

2nd Amendment should never be compromised!!!

[Shabibilicious]

15 hours ago, nstoolman1 said:

Even if it means the 2 A rights of the many are violated. Gotcha. 

 

Does the 2nd Amendment protect illegal firearms?

 

GO RV, then BV 

[nstoolman1]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Does the 2nd Amendment protect illegal firearms?

 

GO RV, then BV 

Objects have no rights. People do.

When a government wants to restrict a right they make a law that defines an object as illegal. 

They create new definitions for words. The 2A is very clear on what it says. Government (states included) like to attempt to skew the meaning, or muddy the waters, to bend it to their definition.

The only people that are going to follow a law are the ones that don't need it in the first place. 

[Shabibilicious]

1 hour ago, nstoolman1 said:

Objects have no rights. People do.

When a government wants to restrict a right they make a law that defines an object as illegal. 

They create new definitions for words. The 2A is very clear on what it says. Government (states included) like to attempt to skew the meaning, or muddy the waters, to bend it to their definition.

The only people that are going to follow a law are the ones that don't need it in the first place. 

 

A country without laws is destined for rampant anarchy.  As always, just my opinion. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

[nstoolman1]

3 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

A country without laws is destined for rampant anarchy.  As always, just my opinion. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

I said nothing about a country without laws.

Laws that would turn law abiding citizens into criminals are tyrannical. I would rather live free and be able to protect myself and family than live under tyranny and be denied that right.

People that are legal one day and because a group of men and women change the definition of a word or make a new one create a law that turns those legal people into criminals, that is the start of a tyrannical government and should be opposed. 

[Shabibilicious]

8 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

I said nothing about a country without laws.

Laws that would turn law abiding citizens into criminals are tyrannical. I would rather live free and be able to protect myself and family than live under tyranny and be denied that right.

People that are legal one day and because a group of men and women change the definition of a word or make a new one create a law that turns those legal people into criminals, that is the start of a tyrannical government and should be opposed. 

 

And thus we've come full circle, for you obviously have and employ personal responsibility, while protecting your family when necessary....not everybody can be counted on to share your righteous outlook and behavior, thus requiring illegal weapons to be removed from the equation. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

[Sage449]

Shabs - question for you - how do you propose pulling guns off the street and then preventing the criminal element from getting them any how and using them against the rest of us that are now unarmed? No matter which gun is banned, the criminals still seem to have free access to them. Arm law enforcement with slingshots and hope they don't get shot. 

 

 

[Shabibilicious]

7 minutes ago, Sage449 said:

Shabs - question for you - how do you propose pulling guns off the street and then preventing the criminal element from getting them any how and using them against the rest of us that are now unarmed? No matter which gun is banned, the criminals still seem to have free access to them. Arm law enforcement with slingshots and hope they don't get shot. 

 

 

 

I don't have the answer to your question....but I also don't own illegal weapons...and why would you be unarmed if your weapons are legal?

 

GO RV, then BV 

[md11fr8dawg]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

A country without laws is destined for rampant anarchy.  As always, just my opinion. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

And you team of Joe and the Ho seem to want to ignore any laws that get in the way of their/Obummer's plan to "fundamentally change this country"!! You remember that don't you Shabs??

[Shabibilicious]

8 minutes ago, md11fr8dawg said:

And you team of Joe and the Ho seem to want to ignore any laws that get in the way of their/Obummer's plan to "fundamentally change this country"!! You remember that don't you Shabs??

 

Honestly fr8dawg....since I first was old enough to vote for Ronnie Reagan, I have heard that exact same argument every time the presidency changes party hands....every single time.  The only difference is the arguments are easier to have because of social media...as opposed to the coffee shops of yesteryear. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

["Fred"]

They talk about illegal gun ownership and hunter biden forgot to put on his application that he had a drug problem isn’t that a felony?? Guess they could start with the presidents son
 

getting illegal guns off the streets sounds like it could be shoot out at the ok coral

[md11fr8dawg]

2 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Honestly fr8dawg....since I first was old enough to vote for Ronnie Reagan, I have heard that exact same argument every time the presidency changes party hands....every single time.  The only difference is the arguments are easier to have because of social media...as opposed to the coffee shops of yesteryear. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

Maybe so Shabs, but yo Boy Obummer was the first one I EVER heard utter the phrase fundamentally change America. And none of the dumbass LS reporters EVER asked him to explain what that meant. And now we are finding out.

[Shabibilicious]

48 minutes ago, md11fr8dawg said:

Maybe so Shabs, but yo Boy Obummer was the first one I EVER heard utter the phrase fundamentally change America. And none of the dumbass LS reporters EVER asked him to explain what that meant. And now we are finding out.

 

First and foremost I would never refer to Obama as "yo boy"....which in retrospect is the biggest reason many white folk hated him so much to begin with, as they felt their grip on racial superiority crumbling before their eyes....not saying you, but millions certainly exist who have no stomach for racial equality....and that exists in all races in this country, not just caucasian.  As always, just my opinion. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

[nstoolman1]

6 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

And thus we've come full circle, for you obviously have and employ personal responsibility, while protecting your family when necessary....not everybody can be counted on to share your righteous outlook and behavior, thus requiring illegal weapons to be removed from the equation. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

 

Again you  miss my point. It being that whenever you have people in authority change a definition of a word or a description of an object and pass a law that one daybefore it was legal to own you have a group that wants to control.

It is not illegal weapons that need to be removed it is illegal people who need to be locked up. 

Law abiding people are low hanging fruit. Criminala are harder to catch.  

[md11fr8dawg]

3 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

First and foremost I would never refer to Obama as "yo boy"....which in retrospect is the biggest reason many white folk hated him so much to begin with, as they felt their grip on racial superiority crumbling before their eyes....not saying you, but millions certainly exist who have no stomach for racial equality....and that exists in all races in this country, not just caucasian.  As always, just my opinion. 

 

GO RV, then BV 

Rest assured Shabs, my loathing disdain for the bummer is NOT the color of his skin, it is (as King said) the content of his character and his stinking marxists policies.

[Pitcher]

[Sage449]

11 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

I don't have the answer to your question....but I also don't own illegal weapons...and why would you be unarmed if your weapons are legal?

 

GO RV, then BV 

No deflecting, that wasn't the question. My point is other than total dumping of guns throughout the world so no one can get access is the only way to stop killing. Then knives, cars, chemicals, McDonald's, covid vaccine etc etc. Any thing that kills. There is no answer,  guns are what they are in the hands of the ultimate user. If I'm a gun owner and don't kill anyone with it, doesn't matter what gun I own. It's those that choose to use a gun for harm at fault. I don't have the answer either I do know banning isn't going to stop the killing. 

[nstoolman1]

12 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

and why would you be unarmed if your weapons are legal?

 

GO RV, then BV 

your weapons are only legal if the state and fed says they are. That is why every time we get a dem president they call for gun control, the gun and ammo sales soar through the roof. 

Every time we get a House or senate that is controlled by the dems they want new laws changing the descriptions of guns so they can make them illegal.  They want a bg check on ammo and private sales. It is none of their business. They just want us disarmed so they can go about their tyrannical business. What is legal today by the stroke of a pen it is illegal tomorrow.