Biden Doesn’t Have an Answer to America’s Crime Spike
Joe Biden knows he needs to appear to be doing something about crime.
Murder rates around the country rose precipitously in 2020, and in many cities the increases have continued into 2021. But the president has few levers to affect crime quickly, and faces political hazards in every direction. Biden has championed police reform, and many progressive Democrats have pushed for sharp reductions in police budgets.
The result was an unsatisfying announcement yesterday, delivered by a meandering Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, about new federal efforts to fight gun violence.
The public is alarmed. While crime finds that six in 10 Americans view crime in the country as a major issue. The problem, for Biden, is that there’s simply not much the federal government can do: The fastest initiatives seem unlikely to have much effect, while others have more potential but are unlikely to come to fruition soon. Law enforcement in the United States is largely conducted on the local and state levels, with a limited federal role. Federal efforts at crime fighting can have unintended consequences, as the huge increase in incarceration that followed the 1994 crime bill demonstrated.
