Punish Criminals and Support Police to Protect Minority Communities | Opinion

Violent crime has sadly become a standing issue in cities and states across the country—and unfortunately it is poised to intensify even further. Homicide rates are only likely to worsen as the summer approaches, as crime rates tend to rise during warmer months, making it even more urgent to address the problem immediately. Politicians should listen to their constituents, abandon soft-on-crime policies, and take action to ensure criminals can't continue to harm Americans.

These measures could save the lives of hundreds of minority children. Crime is a significant issue affecting all communities, but according to recent analysis by the Pew Research Center, it disproportionately harms minority youth. In fact, Black victims accounted for 46 percent of all gun deaths among teens and children. Further, 84 percent of gun deaths involving Black children were homicides, and Black children are five times more likely to die from gunfire than are their white peers.

A simple way to reduce violent crime is to ensure perpetrators who are arrested for it are kept in jail while awaiting trial. For instance, just recently, a man in New York City killed two people within 30 hours after being released on bail. He was previously arrested for shooting at police in 2021. It should be common sense, but someone who has been arrested for trying to murder cops should not be out on bail.

According to a recent study on crime in New York City, which examined crime rates before and after a 2020 law eliminating cash bail for many offenses was implemented, 43 percent of people released under the law were rearrested within two years. The study noted more than 72 percent of released defendants with violent felony arrests were rearrested, compared with less than 62 percent who were rearrested before the 2020 bail reform.

Fortunately, California did not follow New York's lead on "bail reform" laws. It rejected a $0 bail reform after another study showed that suspects released without bail had twice as many felony arrests and three times as many violent crime arrests.

In addition to physically harming communities, crime is driving companies out of cities, which can have major downstream effects for minorities as well. Earlier this month, a Whole Foods store in San Francisco announced it was closing due to crime only a year after it opened. An REI store in Portland just announced it will be closing its doors next year due to break-ins and thefts.

In fact, more than 1,400 chain stores have been forced to shut down throughout the country, many of them citing crime as the reason for their closures—and that is not counting small businesses throughout the country. When fewer stores are open, there are fewer places for families to buy food and other necessities.

The response of some cities has been to give money to local businesses to "rebuild" their stores. But cities cannot afford to fix businesses every time there is a riot or a crime spree. Local cities and state governments need to solve the underlying problem of crime to prevent these atrocities from happening in the first place, instead of just placing a band-aid on the issue.

One important way to do that is to hire additional police officers. The data show that adding 10 to 17 police officers within a given jurisdiction can save one life. That's all it takes—10 to 17 police officers. If you want to save lives, particularly lives in minority communities, don't defund police departments, hire more officers.

It's essential to recognize crime is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach. Some reforms may take months to implement, and it may take longer to see the fruits of those reforms. However, there are things all these cities can do which will have a near-immediate effect on crime: keep violent criminals behind bars after they commit crimes, increase police budgets, and hire more police officers.

Gabriel Nadales is the national director of Our America.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.