Dems fume as President Trump moves to halt federal funds from riot-torn, lawless cities

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President Donald Trump is pursuing plans to “defund” Democrat-operated metropolitans like New York City, Seattle, and Portland over their endless violence, and the Democrats running these cities (into the ground) aren’t pleased.

In a memorandum issued Wednesday, the president expressed his intent, as announced by the White House, “to hold local politicians accountable for refusing to protect their communities from rioting, looting, and mass property destruction.”

“Federal taxpayer dollars provided to States and localities each year are being wasted by reckless policies and the destruction of property in cities across our Nation. So far, violence across the country has cost taxpayers millions of dollars in damages to Federal office buildings, and dozens of Federal officers have been injured,” a White House fact sheet reads.

“Portland recently cut the police divisions for shootings and transit violence, despite receiving hundreds of millions in grants to fund public resources such as transit and law enforcement. As shootings skyrocket in New York City, local officials have agreed on a budget that shifts nearly $1 billion of police funding to other agencies.”

All of this is true. Both NYC and Portland have cut their funding of law enforcement, even as both cities have suffered from unprecedented crime waves fueled in part by the endless riots being perpetrated by Black Lives Matter and Antifa extremists.

Murders alone last month in NYC were up by 47 percent from August 2019, while shootings skyrocketed from just 91 in August 2019 to a whopping 242 last month, according to new crime statistics released this week by the New York Police Department.

(Source: WABC)

“Robberies climbed 4%, and burglaries jumped 22%. Overall, crime for August 2020 increased from 9,033 to 9,093, a .7% increase thanks to a 17.5% reduction in grand larcenies,” local station WABC reported after the release of the statistics.

Also fueling the crime ways in Democrat-controlled cities such as NYC has been backward no-bail policies that have allowed even the most hardened of criminals to return to the streets immediately after being apprehended by the authorities.

Meanwhile in Portland, violent arsonists, rioters and vandals have not only been released back onto the streets but also had their charges dropped.

As noted by the White House, these policy decisions make no sense.

“Portland recently cut the police divisions for shootings and transit violence, despite receiving hundreds of millions in grants to fund public resources such as transit and law enforcement. As shootings skyrocket in New York City, local officials have agreed on a budget that shifts nearly $1 billion of police funding to other agencies,” the fact sheet continues.

By identifying funds that may be redirected from jurisdictions where local politicians have permitted anarchy and violence to abound, President Trump is ensuring Americans are no longer forced to foot the bill for local politicians’ dereliction of duty.”

The announcement provoked so much ire from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that he responded by essentially behaving like a criminal himself — apparently, talking like a criminal is a family thing for him — and basically threatening the president.

“He better have an army if he thinks he’s gonna walk down the street in New York. New Yorkers don’t want to have anything to do with him. He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City, people don’t want to have anything to do with him,” he said during a press briefing later Wednesday.

Other leaders, including Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler responded with less ire but plenty of disinformation and distraction.

Look:

When deadly riots that eventually led to the murder of a young black man erupted in Seattle earlier this summer, Durkan praised them as a “summer of love.”

Meanwhile in Portland, the endless rioting by left-wing extremists that Wheeler has tolerated for months on end led to the murder of a Trump supporter last week.

In the actual memorandum signed by the president, Trump noted that he’s repeatedly “offered to provide Federal law enforcement assistance” to these Democrat officials, only to be ignored or rudely rejected.

The memo specifically instructs White House budget director Russ Vought to issue guidance within 30 days “to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants.”

Speaking with the Post, Vought said he completely supports the move.

“American taxpayers who fund the great programs that our cities rely on deserve to be protected by their local city officials. We are taking action by exploring all options to ensure federal resources flowing to lawless cities aren’t being squandered,” he said.

“The lack of law and order surrounding these riots, and response from local leadership, is a dereliction of duty. Our men and women in blue cannot be handcuffed by local leadership in their efforts to respond to riots and protect their fellow citizens.”

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