Voters in cities throughout the U.S. canceled the political assault against the police, The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.
"With crime surging in many cities, voters rejected the anti-police left this week," the newspaper noted. "Minneapolis was the birthplace of the defund the police movement, but on Tuesday more than 56% of voters rejected a proposal to abolish the police department.
"The ballot measure would have replaced the MPD with a vaguely defined Department of Public Safety and eliminated from the city charter requirements for a police chief and a minimum level of police funding."
The Journal noted violent crime in Minneapolis jumped almost 30% this year compared to the same time frame in 2019. It also pointed out the police department has lost nearly a third of its officers. And the average response time for 911 calls is now about 15 minutes.
"Minneapolis voters were mugged by reality," the newspaper said.
"Same in Seattle, of all places," the editorial observed. "The city was still tallying ballots on Wednesday. But as of this writing, moderate Bruce Harrell was trouncing progressive M. Lorena González nearly 65% to 35% in the race for mayor.
"Mr. Harrell promised to rebuild the police department, restore public order, and refuse to tolerate property destruction. Ms. González was president of a City Council that slashed the 2021 police budget by nearly $35.6 million, or about 9%, compared with 2019."
The newspaper said the trend toward law-and-order also showed in New York City, as Eric Adams won his bid to be mayor.
"His real victory occurred this summer when he defeated progressive opponents in the Democratic primary," the Journal said. As murders and shootings spiked, Mr. Adams campaigned against the disorder.
"Tuesday’s outlier was Philadelphia. Radical progressive Larry Krasner coasted into a second term as district attorney after affluent woke white voters helped him win the May primary.
"But there’s better news out of Long Island, where Republicans Anne Donnelly and Ray Tierney defeated Democrats in district attorney races in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Both races were a referendum on progressive bail reforms that have set repeat offenders free."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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