New data released by the Seattle Police Department (SPD) indicate that violent crime in the city hit a 15-year high in 2022.
Violent crime, as defined by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, increased by about 4% in Seattle last year compared to 2021, a hike primarily driven by alarming increases in murders (24%) and aggravated assaults (5%), according to the city’s latest annual crime report.
Such trends, if unabated, are setting Seattle up to become one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, which a recent report by ABC 7 suggested is a status increasingly associated with local party control.
Accounting for the party affiliations of city council members, district attorneys, mayors, and sheriffs, ABC 7 reported that 11 of the 15 cities with the highest murder rates so far in 2023 are dominated by Democrats.
“Democrats’ soft on crime and no bail policies have led to some of the worst crime waves this country has ever seen,” said Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi in a statement to The Dallas Express.
“We look forward to correcting this error in Texas by ensuring our District Attorneys prosecute our laws, or are removed from office,” Rinaldi said, referring to a bill filed in the Texas Senate earlier this year.
For its part, Dallas — whose city government is nonpartisan — has seen a spike in violent crime since the start of the new year, with murders and aggravated assaults up year-to-date over 2022 by 11.1% and 20.8%, respectively, as of Sunday, according to a daily crime briefing from the Dallas Police Department (DPD).
The City of Dallas clocked 214 murders in 2022 (excluding eight murders left off the City’s statistics based on technicalities), signaling an increase of 84% since 2014, a year that marked a more-than-20-year low in murders.
Dallas County is also dominated by Democrats, including controversial District Attorney John Creuzot, Sheriff Marian Brown, and the whole of the recently elected commissioners court.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, Creuzot has been criticized for his alleged “soft-on-crime” policies, which infamously included his office refusing to prosecute thefts valued under $750, prompting a rare policy reversal on his part.
Creuzot’s move echoed a similar one made by the Seattle City Council, which voted to defund its police department budget to the tune of 50% only to see crime skyrocket and reverse course, according to The Seattle Times.
Like DPD, SPD has struggled to maintain adequate staffing levels, leaving fewer police officers on the street as crime surges.
Criminal justice “reform” efforts like no-bail and non-prosecution policies have been tied to politicians backed by far-left megadonor George Soros, from whom Creuzot received roughly $400,000 in political donations last election cycle, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
The Brennan Center for Justice, meanwhile, urges caution in tying the recent spikes in crime to newly implemented policies.
“Despite politicized claims that this rise was the result of criminal justice reform in liberal-leaning jurisdictions,” a Brennan Center analysis argues, “murders rose roughly equally in cities run by Republicans and cities run by Democrats.”
The Brennan Center suggests that “it does not appear that policies associated with criminal justice reform were a significant contributor to recent trends in crime and violence” and “attempts to link police pullbacks to rising crime have not withstood close scrutiny.” The organization points to factors such as gun use and “socioeconomic instability and disruptions to community life” as alternative explanations.
The Dallas Express reached out for comment to the Democratic Mayors Association, but no response was received by press time.
Requests for comment were also sent to Democratic Party of Texas Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Center for Justice & Equity, and the Washington, D.C.-based The Sentencing Project. No responses were forthcoming.
The National District Attorneys Association declined The Dallas Express’ request for comment on the grounds that it is a non-partisan organization with members on both sides of the political aisle.