Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Wednesday that President Joe Biden and public officials “tolerate” the rising crime rate across the U.S., and are “more interested in Super Bowl guacamole.”
Kennedy began saying “there’s no question” that crime has soared in American cities, including homicides and armed robberies. He said that public leaders have attempted to victimize criminals rather than emphasize personal responsibility and “free will.”
“There are a number of reasons for the increase in our crime rate, but I think part of it is our public leadership,” Kennedy said. “We have many leaders in our communities today who believe, deep down, that, if a criminal commits a crime, it’s really not the criminal’s fault—it’s the fault of an unfair world. And many of these same people believe that punishment, prisons and cops make it worse. And I do not believe any free society can order a civilized culture without accepting the concept of free will and responsibility.”
“I think President Joe Biden has tolerated a lot of this,” Kennedy said. “An uncharitable person might say that his silence in this case, or at least the administration’s more interested in Super Bowl guacamole than the crime rate. And the only way, it seems to me, that in America we’re going to address this problem is from the top-down. Top-up works too. President Biden needs to address this issue and the change in leadership of some of our public officials.”
The senator said leaders need to abandon their “see no evil, hear no evil, and prosecute no evil” motto in order to see any improvement on the issue. (RELATED: ‘What Does That Even Mean?’: Psaki Dumbfounded Republicans Focus On Crime Wave)
Major American cities including Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; Louisville, Kentucky and Albuquerque, New Mexico, all had their highest murder rates on record in 2021, Wall Street Journal reported. Philadelphia had a record 562 murders, surpassing the previous record-high of 500 in 1990.
The homicide rate rose by 4% in 22 major U.S. cities in the third quarter of 2021, the outlet reported.
Political figures have taken soft-on-crime approaches to handling felonies and misdemeanor charges throughout the country. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg scrapped two policies which initially classified armed robberies as petty larceny and misdemeanor if no physical harm was caused after facing backlash over his lenient policies after the slaying of New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Jason Rivera.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón reduced felony crimes to misdemeanors in the passage of Proposition 47. Since his crime reform, the city witnessed a 46% rise in homicides and a 56% jump in car thefts by the end of 2021 as compared to late November of 2019.