Two elected officials were carjacking victims mere days before Christmas. At gunpoint.
Pennsylvania Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon was carjacked in Philadelphia. The thieves stole her Acura MDX, which contained her cell phone, government-issued phone, and purse. Five teenagers, including a 14-year-old girl, from Wilmington, Del., face charges, with gun crimes for some.
Illinois state Sen. Kimberley Lightford’s incident was in Broadview, a suburb of Chicago. “I begged them not to shoot us,” Lightford said. The carjackers stole her Mercedes Benz SUV, shooting as they fled. Lightford’s husband, who has a concealed-carry license, returned fire as his wife fled.
Both political figures were fortunate to escape unharmed. They are both Democrats.
They both called the cops.
The irony in all this is that Scanlon and Lightford have previously spoken out about police reform — especially in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last year.
They both co-sponsored bills in their respective offices that called for mental health specialists to be dispatched instead of police to some incidents. Lightford proposed slashing the Chicago Police Department’s budget by $80 million last year.
Anthony Giordano of South Philly told NBC10 Philadelphia: “Hopefully now that a congresswoman was carjacked, it brings national attention to Philadelphia and something needs to be done.’’
For much of the past year and a half, we have heard the mantra, “Defund the police.”
And that nebulous catch-phrase: We have to “re-imagine” policing.
Whatever the hell that means.
All of this “re-imagining” — and defunding.
The reality: “Basically, the Democrats made a huge miscalculation when they took a defund-the-police position,” George Washington University law professor Robert Cottrol told InsideSources. “It did increase crime, is politically unpopular, and will probably cost them at the ballot box. They are trying to do damage control for a position they never should have taken.”
Well, that “damage control” has California Gov. Gavin Newsom budgeting an extra $300 million for 2022 to help the Golden State police fight the crime spike.
When liberal San Francisco finally admits a crime problem, you know it’s REAL.
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced at a recent news conference. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the B.S. that has destroyed our city.”
That B.S. also includes smash-and-grab robberies, which is ravaging Breed’s once picturesque city.
At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021, with five topping records set or tied just last year.
Look at New York: Eric Adams won the mayoral race on a platform of law and order.
Then he promptly appointed the first Black female police commissioner (49-year-old Keechant Sewell) in the history of New York, where President Theodore Roosevelt once was police commissioner (1895-1897).
One situation we have noticed is this: More and more Black officials have been appointed police commissioners, police chiefs, police superintendents, etc., in cities — medium-sized to major. No coincidence.
That’s a sign of desperation.
Because crime is considered largely a Black problem in the nation’s cities, Black police commanders are expected to perform a two-fold mission: Reduce crime dramatically while simultaneously curbing the incidents of police brutality.
That’s a heavy burden for any Black person.
Philadelphia appointed a Black female police commissioner last year, Danielle Outlaw.
Not only is the murder rate up but also carjackings. According to police, the number of carjackings in Philly jumped from 225 in 2019, to 409 last year and, to date in 2021, at least 720.
CBS2 News in Chicago in October aired a riveting news report called, “Why I Carjack; Teens Tell All.” Anchor Irika Sargent conducted the interviews in silhouette, the perpetrators were age 19 and under, some were girls and all were Black.
One teen said he turned to carjacking in Chicago after playing the popular video game “Grand Theft Auto;” another said he obtains guns off Facebook; a girl said she was bored with online, remote learning in high school and turned to carjacking, was arrested, and sent to juvenile detention, then released only to carjack again; one teen said when a driver resists, he drags them out of the car.
No wonder Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is requesting assistance from the federal government to fight crime while telling residents: “Keeping you safe is my priority.”
Mary Gay Scanlon and Kimberley Lightford surely would agree.
