Super Bowl guacamole is an important thing. It can make or break a seven-layer dip, after all. It’s not as important as reducing crime, however.
While the two may seem to be unrelated, leave it to Sen. John Kennedy to connect them. In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, the colorful Louisiana Republican said President Joe Biden and other liberals have “tolerated” rising crime rates and were “more interested in Super Bowl guacamole” than in solving the problem.
There’s little doubt that crime rates have soared since 2020 for a variety of reasons — and, according to The Wall Street Journal, they didn’t go down in 2021, either.
The left’s “defund the police” rhetoric and focus on liberal nostrums like gun control haven’t helped. At The Western Journal, we continue to note the ineffectiveness of the liberal response to an unprecedented crime wave, and we’ll continue bringing readers the truth about violent crime. You can help by subscribing.
According to the New York Post, Kennedy made the remarks during a news conference focused on the November midterm elections inside the Capitol, telling the media “there’s no question that crime has increased in America.”
“Homicides, shootings, armed robbery, carjackings — in many of our cities, well, it’s safer to walk down the streets of Mogadishu [in Somalia] than walk down the streets of those cities,” which he termed “some of the world’s largest outdoor shooting ranges.”
While this is a bit of colorful hyperbole on Kennedy’s part, there’s no question there’s been a spike in crime.
As the Journal noted in a January report, homicides in 22 major American cities rose 4 percent in 2021’s third quarter, according to a study by the think-tank Council on Criminal Justice.
That’s after murders spiked 30 percent in 2020 — “the largest single-year increase ever recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the Journal noted. Some cities set records for murders, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Louisville, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Portland, Oregon.
“Criminologists and local law-enforcement officials don’t agree on the reasons for the surge in violent crime,” wrote the Journal’s Zusha Elinson.
“Some cite stress from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some point to what they see as frayed relations between law enforcement and black communities after police killings, such as that of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Others blame bail reform and moves in some cities to bring fewer prosecutions.”
Kennedy, however, blamed liberals for treating criminals as victims — discounting “free will” and responsibility.
“There are a number of reasons for the increase in our crime rate, but I think part of it is our public leadership,” Kennedy said.
“We have many leaders in many of our cities today who believe … that the criminal is the victim. We have many leaders in our communities today who believe, deep down, that, if a criminal commits a crime, it’s really not the criminal’s fault. It’s the fault of an unfair world,” he continued.
“And many of these same people believe that punishment, prisons and cops make it worse. And I do not believe that any free society can order a civilized culture without accepting the concept of free will and responsibility.”
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And the fish rots from the head, Kennedy said.
“I think President Biden has tolerated a lot of this,” Kennedy said.
“An uncharitable person might say that his silence in this case, that he’s — at least the administration’s more interested in Super Bowl guacamole than the crime rate,” he continued.
“And the only way, it seems to me, that in America we’re going to address this problem is from the top-down. Bottom-up works too. President Biden needs to address this issue and the change in leadership of some of our public officials.”
Biden isn’t interested in showing the kind of leadership Kennedy is asking for, though.
As the Post noted, the president “visited New York City last week to discuss increasing rates of murder, carjacking and other violent crimes, but the public portion of his talks with local Democrats focused on lax gun laws in the South and relatively uncommon homemade ‘ghost guns,’ rather than policies that critics say create a revolving door for violent criminals.”
In New York City, bail reform laws gone wrong and a new Manhattan district attorney who has enacted criminal justice reforms along the lines of what we’ve seen in Los Angeles and San Francisco — fewer prosecutions, fewer accused criminals given pre-trial detention, prosecuting robberies of less than $1,000 as misdemeanors — are bigger concerns for community leaders than “ghost guns” and the South’s firearm laws.
But then, why should we be surprised the president wouldn’t address that? Last month, before the visit, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said media concerned over the crime rate — particularly Fox News — are living in an “alternate universe.”
Jen Psaki mocks people discussing the “consequences” of “soft-on-crime” policies: “What does that even mean?” pic.twitter.com/C1KEnXVIQI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 31, 2022
“On Fox is [‘The Five’ co-host] Jeanine Pirro taking about ‘soft-on-crime consequences,’” Psaki said. “I mean, what does that even mean, right? So, there’s an alternate universe on some coverage. What’s scary about it is, a lot of people watch that.”
No, what’s scary is that there were at least 485 murders in New York City in 2021, up 4 percent from 2020 and up 52 percent from 2019. Car thefts in 2021 were up 15 percent from 2020 and 92 percent from 2019, the Post reported. When Biden visited the city, at least publicly, he was more concerned about “ghost guns.”
He might as well have expressed his concern about the Super Bowl guacamole situation in NYC.
Those avocados can get overripe, after all — and if you don’t buy them early enough, they might not be ripe at all. Either way, it can ruin your dip.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
