Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall is not exactly off to a stellar start in her career.
Violent crime is on a major uptick and Chief Hall made matters even worse by blaming it on a lack of employment opportunities in the city.
Excuses, Excuses
From 2007 to 2014, Dallas saw a decline from the previous year’s murder rate all but once.
In fact, 2014 marked a 10-year low with 116 murders in the city, then everything went haywire.
From 2014 to 2015, that went up dramatically from 116 to 136.
In 2016, that increased to 171.
While it went down in 2017, it was only marginal at 167.
Once again, in 2018, we saw a dramatic rise in murders, with 196 homicides in the city.
Overall, since 2014, the city has become dramatically more violent.
From 2014 to 2017, these are the reported crime rates for violent crimes:
Rapes have increased from 781 to 831.
Robberies have increased from 3,856 to 4,377.
Assaults have increased from 3.704 to 4,994.
This year, after only five months, there have been 89 murders in the city, which will be a dramatic increase from last year if the trend continues.
Considering we are just not coming into the hottest months of the season when crime rates typically go up, it is not a good a sign for the once great city of Dallas.
Why are we seeing such a dramatic increase in murders and violent crime?
This is what Chief Hall had to say on the topic:
“There are individuals in this city who have returned from prison who cannot find a job, who are not educated.
“So, in those instances, those individuals are forced to ah, commit violent acts.
“But we also must understand the police department is not able to arrest our way out of this.
“There are socioeconomic issues that are related to crime in this city.”
Needless to say, representatives for the local police were not thrilled with her comments.
A local representative for the National Black Police Association stated, “100% of our current crime problem is an officer shortage.
“People who commit violence against our citizens need to go to jail.”
Treat Criminals Like Criminals
In April, SPN reported the new DA, John Creuzot, was implementing a policy of not prosecuting certain non-violent crimes (you can read the full story here).
We predicted this would lead to non-violent crimes turning violent as more and more people would be encouraged to steal knowing they would not be prosecuted.
Sadly, that prediction has come true.
Chief Hall tried to explain her comments away a little later in the day by stating, “Today my point was simple – there is no excuse for crime.
“Crime in general, however, is on the rise in Dallas for many reasons.
“One of them being the lack of opportunity.
“In no way, am I using that as an excuse to commit a crime.
“However, we have to work together as a community to remain vigilant and proactive.
“I’ve asked our pastoral community, as a beginning, to develop ways to teach people how to resolve disputes without violence and find opportunities without resorting to crime.”
For Chief Hall to say this is about opportunity is utterly ridiculous.
Dallas is one of the fastest growing cities in the country right now, with more and more businesses opening and/or moving their headquarters to the area.
When you factor in other local communities like Frisco, Plano, McKinney, etc., there are plenty of opportunities for anyone that actually wants to work.
Chief Hall and the city need to buck up and put more police on the streets because that is the real issue.
Our police are stretched so thin, they are losing the moment they punch the clock.
This is a fact, as there are currently 700 fewer officers employed by the city than there were in 2011, even though the population has boomed from 1.2 million to 1.34 million as of 2017.
It is estimated that we see a net gain of close to 500 people a day in the DFW area, so that number is now more than likely in the range of 1.7 million.
Furthermore, the new policies of this new DA need to be rescinded and criminals need to be locked up and held, not let back out on the streets simply because their crime did not fall into a certain dollar value.
Liberals cannot continue to make excuses for and/or reward criminal behavior.
Dallas is dangerously close to becoming the next Chicago or Detroit.
Liberal leadership is quickly turning this great city into just another big city crime pit.
We don’t need excuses Chief Hall, we need action and we need more police officers!
Sources: Fox 4 / NBCDFW / City-Data.com
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