The leftist Democrat Oakland California city council joined other crime-infested Demo urban centers across the nation this week by defunding $18 million from its police budget. Violent crime in Oakland is up significantly from this time last year when so-called “Black Lives Matter” celebrations were heating up — including homicide rates, which have doubled.

What could go wrong? Well, shortly after Oakland’s PD Chief LeRonne Armstrong ripped the council for the cuts, the media crew interviewing Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention, Guillermo Cespedes, at city hall, was robbed at gunpoint.

But according to Democrats, the “defund police” movement is the Republicans’ fault — Thomas Gallatin highlighted that pivot Monday, starting with Joe Biden’s spokesperson, Jen “Circle Back” Psaki. The Demos’ Leftmedia propagandists then parroted that lie.

Responding to that colossal canard, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) made things clear: “Everybody knows it was Democrats who started this crazy, radical, extremist move to defund police. All the big city mayors that defunded their police, whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, Chicago — they’re all Democrats. … Speaker Pelosi just recently called police ‘stormtroopers.’ … You had one of her top lieutenants in Congress [say] police are inherently racist and need to be abolished. Now they’re seeing the dumpster fire they created. … They never admit they were wrong. They’re just going to try to blame somebody else.”

Senator Ted Cruz added, “Democrats now claiming it’s Republicans who want to defund the police is like an arsonist showing up at a fire and blaming the firemen, it’s like the Chinese blaming Americans for the Wuhan virus, and it’s like O.J. saying he’s going to help find the real killer.”

Fact is, Democrats in the House and Senate were the beneficiaries of the pandering congressional protagonists and Demo mayors nationwide, who led the defund-police chorus.

Of course, the congressional defund mantra was led by de facto House leaders Sandy Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Cori Bush (collectively known as “The Squad,” who started their anti-police crusade during last year’s summer of rage based on their fallacious “systemic racism” lies.

The loudest of those mouths, and it is quite a competition, is Cortez. What did Cortez say about defunding police? “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools.”

Now she hysterically claims that concern about escalating crime is driven by “hysteria” over media reports. She insists, “I want to make sure that this hysteria, you know, that this doesn’t drive a hysteria and that we look at these numbers in context so that we can make responsible decisions about what to allocate in that context.” She doubled down on her insistence that the hysteria must not distract from the efforts to defund police.

Second up in the loud-mouth category is islamist Ilhan Omar, the Jew hater. She declared: “What we are saying is the current infrastructure that exists as policing … should not exist anymore, and we can’t go about creating a different process with the same infrastructure in place. … Not only do we need to defund, but we need to dismantle and start anew.”

Third in the lineup is Rashida Tlaib, who said, “Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist. … No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.”

Ayanna Pressley insisted she is “ready to continue the systemic work necessary to radically reimagine a system of public safety in our country that finally censures the dignity and humanity of all.” She declared, “Yes I support the defund movement.”

And last, Cori Bush says, “Defunding the police isn’t radical, it’s real. … I am for defunding the police.”

Notably, each of these Demo reps have paid thousands for their own personal security, compliments of taxpayers. Cortez shelled out $5,000 per month. Bush spent $70,000, explaining: “I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do there, too many people that need help right now for me to allow that.”

There was no collective condemnation of their defund-police advocacy by their Democrat congressional leaders, or objections to all the Demo mayor defund initiatives. Their silence was deafening.

Of course, other key Demos signed on to the defund movement but stayed in the shadows. Joe Biden affirmed “reallocation” of policing resources. Kamala Harris also expressed her support for reallocating police funding, saying, “We have to reimagine public safety.” Stupefyingly, Harris declared, “For far too long, the status quo thinking has been to believe that by putting more police on the street, you’re going to have more safety – and that’s just wrong.” And Harris is financially backing these radical groups. Their urban center mayors defunded tens of millions from police budgets.

In his national address on crime last week, Biden attempted to lie his way out of Demo responsibility for the violence and carnage. But all the evidence leads right back to his socialist Democrat Party. Clearly, Demos are attempting to tone down their defund rhetoric while keeping that agenda on track.

As former prosector Andrew McCarthy notes, “Even energetic media revisionism will not be able to help Democrats in the short run. They are stuck with their "defund the police” rhetoric, and they will be hurt by it…“ But he cautions: "Over the long haul, though, the battle is not going to be about defunding the police but defining the police. Republicans should be against funding the progressive vision of law enforcement, which would give the country what it has given Democrat-run cities: non-enforcement and rising crime.”

The fact that anyone is actually questioning who advocated for defunding police departments and, consequently, who is responsible for the surge in violence is asinine.

As for Biden’s latest excuse for a “crime bill,” it’s worth noting that the last major Democrat crime bill was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and soon thereafter Democrats lost majority control of the House for the first time in 40 years. The author of that bill: Joe Biden.

The bottom line regarding the epidemic of violence: Democrats institutionalized lawlessness in the name of “social justice,” beginning with their “Summer of Rage” riots in 2020, when they intentionally provoked and promoted violence. They simultaneously villainized law enforcement and cut police budgets. The result was, and continues to be, a one-two sucker punch against victims of violence and those charged with protecting them.

Surging violence today is the direct result of empowering leftist mobs in the name of “social justice,” in effect sending the message that Democrat constituents are entitled to be violent – and that sense of entitlement continues unabated. The implications, given the rising generation of sociopaths, is dire. It will take years to restore real justice – rule of law – but leftists politicians are not going to do that when they can label the violent cultural devolution they have fomented a “gun problem,” and avoid the inconvenient truth about race and violence – the Demos’ “Black Death” Plague.

Footnote: Demo Mayors nationwide have demonstrated the same level of abject hypocrisy as Cori Bush…

Chicago – Mayor Lori Lightfoot Cut 400 police officers in 2020 Spent $6.2 million on police protection from 2019 to 2020

New York City – Mayor Bill de Blasio The city council approved reducing the police budget from $6 billion to $1 billion in 2020 Spent $358,000 on police protection for his presidential bid from 2019 to 2020

San Francisco – Mayor London Breed Said the city would divert $120 million from law enforcement in 2020 Spent $7.8 million on police protection from 2018 to 2020

Baltimore – Mayor Brendon Scott Police budget cut by $22 million in 2020 Spent $3.6 million on police protection for Scott, State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison in 2020

San Diego, California – Todd Gloria Reportedly pushed for $4.3 million cut from police overtime budget Spent $2.6 million on police protection in 2020

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

(Updated)