Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accused Republicans of not having a plan to combat violent crime. But, in fact, they do have a plan in writing.
Speaking at a rally for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mrs. Clinton tore into the Republican Party. She accused them of using scare tactics to frighten voters about violent crime, saying Republicans won’t address the crime problem.
“They don’t care about keeping you safe,” Mrs. Clinton said Thursday at the rally at Barnard College in New York City. “They want to keep you scared.”
“I see … ads about crime every 30 seconds,” she continued. “No solutions, but just a lot of really fearful, scary pictures and scary music.”
Republicans fired back that they have proposed solutions and unveiled them last month. The proposal is one of two crime measures that GOP lawmakers have introduced.
Rep. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, introduced legislation that aimed at enhancing public safety by assisting state and local governments’ efforts to crack down on crime.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, will propose a similar bill in the Senate. The measure would enact several proposals, including:
• Prohibiting the Justice Department from giving grants to jurisdictions that end cash bail or allow pretrial release for dangerous criminals.
• Requiring local governments to fully report crime data to the FBI’s crime database.
• Mandating that local governments track policies that result in “non-enforcement” or “non-prosecution” of crime, including sentencing data, crime statistics for defendants given pretrial release, and efforts to fight violent crime.
A group of Republican senators in September proposed a bill that would direct more federal resources to state and local police departments, as well as improve the time it takes for crime labs to process rape kits.
The proposal was unveiled by Sens. Mike Braun of Indiana, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Under the measure, the federal government would create a grant program for local and state police departments to hire more officers and detectives to focus on violent crime. It would also increase police department resources to address drug crimes.
The war of words between Mrs. Clinton and Republicans highlights just how much violent crime looms over Tuesday’s midterm elections.
A Politico/Morning Consult poll released last month found that 75% of voters say violent crime is a major problem in the U.S. Only 17% of voters said it was a minor problem and 2% said it wasn’t a problem at all.
Republican candidates have hammered Democrats on the issue, blaming them for the surging crime in campaign ads running across the country. The ads fault lenient district attorneys for not pursuing harsher penalties for serious crimes; liberal efforts to eliminate cash bail; decriminalizing marijuana and slashing police budgets.
Crime statistics vary depending on how they are compiled. The FBI earlier this month released its annual crime report for 2021, concluding that violent crime dropped by 1% from 2020. That report is incomplete, however, with only 63% of the nation’s police departments submitting data. New York and Los Angeles were not among the cities that submitted statistics.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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