When Will Cities Stop The Bleeding?

As I read the latest on how crime and violence have overtaken urban cities, I am reminded of an element of crime that most elected officials are not. I continually state that crime is like water or wildfires. They seek their own levels. You can only put up so many sandbags along swollen riverbanks to keep rising water from flooding land. It’s like with basements. Keeping water out will always be a challenge. At some point, it will find its way in unless you continually make adjustments and water will inevitably find a way in. Wildfires occur in the same areas every year, yet effective maintenance of dry areas rarely occurs because eco-wacko environmentalists won’t allow it. The same can be said about criminal apologists. They don’t want perpetrators locked up.

  Crime and violence have many of the same properties as water and fire. It is a constant challenge to keep crime under control. Crime will occur at levels and rates of a community’s tolerance for it. Effective urban policies along with effective policing strategies with a goal of suppression, prevention and prosecution of unwanted behavior are the sandbags to keep things under control. Constant maintenance is required. Who gets in the way? Soft-on-crime social engineers who erroneously believe that deeply ingrained criminal behavior can effectively be eliminated with behavior modification strategies that do not allow a role for punishment for unwanted behavior. Political neglect in the area of crime control allows it to bleed into surrounding fertile territories. And it is now spreading.

  We are now seeing reports of lawlessness beginning to affect the business community. Retail giants Walmart, Walgreens, Target Department Store, Macy’s, Best Buy and Whole Foods have reached a point of no return. All these chains have announced they are closing stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities. Other stores in Florida and New York malls have shut down for the same reason. They can no longer absorb the millions of dollars in losses due to thefts and other acts of disorder that are threatening their employees and their customers.

These dollar amounts in terms of losses are staggering. It is reported that retailers lost $94.5 billion in 2021 from theft and inventory losses. Target reported losing over $400 million in profits last November and is expecting to lose a total of $600 million by the end of this year due to organized gangs stealing merchandise from their stores. Retail stores are always challenged by outside forces like finding reliable employees and providing goods and services at affordable prices that customers want to purchase. When customers no longer feel that it is safe to venture into areas overtaken by crime, violence and disorder, or if prices rise to offset thefts, it hurts the bottom line of retail stores. That also makes it harder to find reliable employees.

All these stores have a successful business model that thrives in more livable areas surrounding these urban jungles. Yes, I call them urban jungles. These areas are out of control because the social order has collapsed around them. These retail outlets have made many adjustments over the last ten years in an attempt to remain profitable, but to no avail. They have begged city officials for help in suppressing and preventing crime. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. In the case of Chicago stores, outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot has blamed the businesses for not doing a better job of safeguarding their property as organized gangs of shoplifters clear entire store shelves of property and then walk out. Thieves no longer even feel a need to run out knowing that store employees are ordered not to intervene and that by the time police even respond, they will be long gone, just walking away.

Things are compounded because urban policies have for all intents and purposes decriminalized retail theft and public spaces have been surrendered to large bands of roving out-of-control youths, creating a climate of fear around retail areas. Getting state prosecutors to actually charge anybody with criminal offenses is nearly impossible. George Soros-funded state prosecutors are throwing out not just lower level classes of  crimes but serious felony charges as well forcing law abiding people and retailers to wave the white the white flag of surrender. In Milwaukee County for example it is reported that woke District Attorney John Chisholm has not charged 60% of felony cases brought to his office.

  The water has overtaken the proverbial sandbagging attempts to keep it away. Where crime, violence and disorder seemed to be contained within certain sections of neighborhoods, it is now seeping into the business community. For cities to be successful, it requires the five elements that make up a community complimenting each other. You have to have a base of functioning middle-class families that work and pay into supporting the city through taxes, a strong business sector that provides services and jobs, a role for the church to provide moral guidance, successful K-12 schools to provide future employees and a small role for government. This model is failing, however, due to several factors.

  Many large urban centers are in the early stages of decay. This is caused by middle-class families fleeing. Replacing this void are people who require more government assistance. As a result, they are not paying into city operations and are a drain on city services. The K-12 public education systems in these areas are failing in their mission to educate children. Churches are empty and are losing their influence on family life. Businesses are now finding it harder to remain profitable and forced to lay off employees. The role of government is taking on a larger footprint. That is not good nor is it the proper role for government, not to mention that it results in more unnecessary regulation, higher taxes and costs for city services. Government needs to stick to funding effective public safety and providing better public schools along with infrastructure services. Right now, they are trying to do it all and they are failing miserably.

 So, what do we do? First, we get everybody back into their proper lane or role in this equation of how to run a city. The highest priority of any level of government is to secure the personal safety of citizens. Police need to be properly funded back to pre-defunded levels including inflation-adjusted numbers. Police executives need to come up with effective order maintenance strategies with stretch targets with metrics and be held accountable for results. Crime levels have to decrease, or mayors have to replace these law enforcement executives. Police need to reclaim public spaces so law-abiding citizens can return to enjoy them. The business community’s demands for safer areas to remain profitable have got to be addressed and met. K-12 public schools have to return to their original mission of educating students to be able to provide an educated workforce to compete for the jobs of the 21st century. This is the proper role for government. Businesses need an educated workforce to find employees. Families have to become functional and shun lifestyles that lead to abhorrent behavior by young people. The church needs to reclaim its influence in helping distressed families. Once cities become successful in their primary role, the other entities stand a better chance of succeeding.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com