Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is seeking clarity from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland about Garland's recent press release announcing a plan to reduce violent crime.
Grassley points out that Garland's press release uses vague terms like "invest[ing] in prevention" and "target[ing] enforcement efforts and priorities" without clear explanation of what that looks like.
Grassley says that Garland uses other terms suggesting that he plans to shift money and attention away from law enforcement to other priorities, or "defund the police."
Grassley asks Garland to answer the following questions by June 18, 2021:
Click the link below to read the letter:
Senator Grassley letter to AG Garland: How reduce violent crime by defunding police?
The truth on this is defunding the police WILL lower crime rates. This is because crime rates depend on crime reporting, and if there are no police to take the report, or if the reporting falls on some entity that will not take a report or reports it as something other than a crime, then crime rates will go down. It has already happened in NYC and other jurisdictions using "comp stat" procedures to either mis- or under-report crimes. You see, if you take a report and label it something other than a crime, e.g. an "information only" report, there is not a crime. I would expect the actual crime rates of large cities who are massaging the system is much higher than reported.