CNN Panel Instantly Implodes When Commentator Mentions ‘Ferguson Effect’ Spiking Crime

Sparks flew during a CNN segment Tuesday night after 1776 Project PAC founder Ryan Girdusky said the “Ferguson effect” and less police presence in communities leads to spikes in violent crime.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson coined the term “Ferguson effect” in 2014 following the fatal police-involved shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which hypothesizes that a decrease in police activity leads to a surge in violent crime. Girdusky argued that the “Ferguson effect” and the death of George Floyd led to a surge in black male deaths in response to CNN’s Abby Phillips’ criticism of former President Donald Trump calling on the involvement of the military to suppress the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots in the summer of 2020.

“There are the post-George Floyd riots resulted in 15,000 black male deaths in this country,” Girdusky said.

“How?” CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers asked.

Girdusky said there was less police presence at the time of the 2020 riots because officers feared for their jobs at the time, leading to a surge in violent crime.

“The surge of violent crime, it was like Ferguson effect, the Ferguson effect and the Floyd effect … Because what happens is after the Ferguson riot and after the Floyd riot, policemen in fear of their jobs many times and political coverage, pull back from their jobs resulting in crime size,” Girdusky said.

“Ryan, hold on, hold on. Ryan, we got to stop you there because you’re literally making a connection out of your own conjecture,” Phillips said. “You can not just do that.”