re: how did this happen?

Early 2020 pandemic combined with Geo. Floyd anti-police protests and associated violent unrest caused more sales of handguns than in history. People of all political persuasions were buying them for protection.

Criminals felt free to join in (especially very clear with looting). They found they could get away with it if they did it while police were busy. That phenomenon helped fuel creativity in the criminal mind (which we are seeing now).

In a small number of localities they actually tried defunding the police.

Covid in crowded jails caused the early release of many felons that might have still been in jail in other times. Covid also cause a lot of judges and prosecutors to go easy on bail and bond issues, which lefties has long been clamoring for, as in a pandemic they just couldn't cope with more people in jail.

People often get arrested for violence. (When let out, they go home and often get angry and cause domestic shootings.)

Likewise many mentally ill were let out on the streets.

That combined with the police being demonized in the news for an entire year, while they also had the covid beat under the threat of covid while most of the population was isolated in their homes (more domestic violence), while they had to be on the streets working, MADE POLICING A VERY UNDESIRABLE JOB.

Police presence deters crime. That's proven many times. (Yglesias posted a lot of the papers about a year ago.)

BLM of the Geo. Floyd era might have been the most counterproductive movement in history as to achieving goals.Exactly the wrong time.

May 2020 onward:  A PERFECT STORM.

I don't know how it's going to be solved now as all those guns are out in the population at large for many years to come and policing is an unpopular job (a lot of the bad apples will stay tho!) There has to be culture change where people want licensing of guns and insurance for them and serious punishment for those who people who use them without one, just like with motor vehicles.

"Gun control" for new purchases going forward will not help much at all. The market is saturated!  And people can sell what's out there and make ghost guns as well. (I admit I have not investigated whether regulation of parts certain used for ghost guns will deter growth of that market, I don't understand the details of whether that is possible.)

When You Add More Police To A City, What Happens?

@ NPR.org, April 20, 20216:30 AM ET

On the research and very nuanced study of Morgan Williams, Jr. an economist at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He researches the economics of crime and incarceration policy, with a particular focus on racial inequality. Raised in the South Bronx, Williams still lives and works not too far from where he grew up.

Whether you're an activist who's been shouting "defund the police" in the streets, or a conservative who flies a "thin blue line" flag in front of your house, if you're looking for someone to rile you up with a megaphone, Williams is not your guy. In these hyperpolarized times, Williams stands apart in speaking the technical language of a wonk with the cool emotions of a data-cruncher. "We want to be as a scientifically objective as possible," he says about his and his colleagues' work.....

Here's a D.A. that's into having a civil society

an afternoon in Baltimore which lost the civil thing long time ago 

SF D.A. Boudin as regarding rash of robberies - won't answer press question & still getting real bad reviews on that front from both the police and the former D.A. (a woman of color)

Mayor-Elect Eric Adams writes op-ed that NYC NEEDS to use proper STOP-AND-FRISK:

How we make New York City safe: Mayor-elect Eric Adams explains why we need stop and frisk and proactive policing

By ERIC ADAMS @ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | NOV 28, 2021 AT 5:00 AM

The shooting of two police officers Wednesday night in the Bronx should serve as a harrowing reminder of just how much work we have to do to get guns off of our streets — and, also, how we need to do it.

The code was sent out to officers that night — a “1010,″ which means suspect with a gun — and a description. Vigilant New Yorkers had identified a dangerous individual in their neighborhood.

That is when Officers Alejandra Jacobs and Robert Holmes went to work, knowingly putting their lives on the line to address the threat to public safety. According to the NYPD, they approached 23-year-old Charlie Vasquez, who met the description from the 911 call. They asked him to show his hands and he opened fire. Heroically, although already shot in the arm, Jacobs returned fire while her partner disarmed him.

The threat was neutralized. One more gun off the street. One more blow against the bad guys.

Yet there are some in our city who would say these officers should never have confronted Vasquez, that he never should have been stopped and questioned.

During the debates for mayor, I was continually pressed on my position on the policing procedure known as “stop and frisk” — which is actually in law enforcement known as “stop, question and frisk” — and why I believed that, if used properly, it could reduce crime without infringing on personal liberties and human rights. Some of my opponents were particularly incredulous, declaring they would “end stop and frisk” forever.

In fact, as American courts have affirmed over many years, stop, question and frisk is a perfectly legal, appropriate and constitutional tool, when used smartly, as opposed to indiscriminately against hundreds of thousands of young Black and Brown men, as it was for years in New York City. Not only that, but it is a necessary tool, whereby police approach someone who fits a witness description or otherwise appears to be carrying an illegal weapon.

The question was never whether stop, question and frisk should be allowed; it was how it should be done. Those who claimed it should be outlawed entirely reduced a nuanced issue to an either-or argument, and unwisely answered it with a blanket ban.

The professional conduct of Jacobs and Holmes showed us all exactly why that would be a huge mistake. And it shows us clearly that, if we are going to rid our city of guns and dangerous individuals, we must stop fighting from the extremes about public safety and start talking about sensible solutions that work in the real world.

This is only one example. Right now — whether the fighting is about stop, question and frisk, defund the police or bail reform — we are having the wrong arguments.

The question should not be whether or not police are allowed to confront suspects; it should be about how we train them. The question should not be whether we have police; it should be how we use them. The question should not be whether judges should have the ability to protect New Yorkers from violent offenders; it should be how we let them.

As a former police officer who was deeply disturbed by the abuse of stop, question and frisk a decade ago, I testified in federal court to end the practice whereby young men of color were being harassed and targeted at alarming rates, and the judge in the case pointed to my testimony when she ruled to restrict the practice to a fairer approach. I also authored a law to delete the database of innocent people recorded from those unjust encounters.

At the same time, as a former officer and lifelong New Yorker, I also know personally how dangerous our streets can be — especially when criminals feel that they are in charge. And so I am also against defunding the police and a part of the bail reforms that prevented judges from exercising necessary discretion to keep violent individuals in jail who pose an imminent threat.

If we work to find common ground rather than fighting from entrenched, simplistic, ideological corners, we can have the safety we need and the justice we deserve. These two officers risked their lives to show us that last week. When I visited them at the hospital Thursday, it reminded me how important it is for our law enforcement and our communities to get this right. The least we can do is to learn from their dedication and example and start working together to protect New Yorkers’ rights to life and liberty at this critical moment for our city.

On Jan. 1, I will make that my number one priority as your next mayor. I pray all New Yorkers will join me.

Adams is the mayor-elect of New York City.

The New York Post wrote this news story about the op-ed:

CPD just caught one:

Thread

Spot News @SPOTNEWSonIG

1h

23rd Pl/Wentworth: person shot!  #ChicagoScanner

1h

keep the school kids away from the windows, I don't want them seeing this.  #ChicagoScanner

1h

0-1-1-0. #ChicagoScanner

1h

preliminary info, this may be related to a robbery.  #ChicagoScanner

58m

Ambo 35 to Stroger. #ChicagoScanner

 

55m

the victim is a male Asian, possibly in his 50s.  #ChicagoScanner

13m

the shooter fled in a blue 2007 Toyota Scion (CD 46415), the vehicle is headed northbound on the Dan Ryan from 63rd St, ISP is being notified.  #ChicagoScanner

8m

 

still northbound on the e-way, passing Roosevelt.  #ChicagoScanner

5m

got the vehicle stopped and the subject is detained!  #ChicagoScanner

4m

got him detained on the Kennedy at Jackson.

there is a gun in the vehicle. #ChicagoScanner

2:45 PM · Dec 7, 2021·

They've done their job, now on to the prosecutors.

By the way, doing this cost a lot of tax money.  We could just let the Asian guy call an ambulance for himself and fuggeabout the rest.

Potts said the victims were shot in a car that was riddled with bullets.

at least this guy didn't shoot either of them:

very similar story in Jackson, Miss., this guy did apparently shoot the mother:

New Yorkers know, you can't spin them, we know whether we live in a low crime city or not, we've had both.