Dem mayoral candidates now stressing law and order over BLM, ‘defund the police,’ report says

In big-city mayoral elections, attracting enough votes to win apparently matters.

In city after city, Democrats who previously heeded Black Lives Matter’s calls to “defund the police” by reducing law enforcement budgets or reallocating police funds to other uses are now stressing crackdowns on crime as Election Day nears, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

“Mayors aren’t stupid, and they understand if taxpaying residents of their city start leaving, as they did in the 1970s, the whole city is endangered,” Ned Hill, an Ohio State professor who studies city politics, told the newspaper.

“Mayors aren’t stupid, and they understand if taxpaying residents of their city start leaving, as they did in the 1970s, the whole city is endangered.” 

— Ned Hill, Ohio State professor

Debates on addressing lawlessness are also taking place in cities without competitive elections, the report said.

NYC DETECTIVES STRUGGLE TO KEEP THE PEACE AMID LOW STAFFING, LACK OF SUPPORT

The Democrats in cities such as New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland and Seattle may simply be reacting to the data, according to the Post, which cited last week’s Pew Research Center poll that showed 47% of Americans want police to receive more funding, not less.

That figure was up from 31% last June, amid racial justice protests, the Post reported.

U.S. cities saw killings rise by 30% in 2020 – representing the largest single-year spike since the federal government began tracking the information in the 1960s, the newspaper reported.

Perhaps reflecting the shift in voter sentiment, New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee, Eric Adams, is a former NYPD captain, while GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa is a longtime anti-crime civic activist.

Progressives adjust

Even progressives are making adjustments, according to the Post.

In Buffalo, far-left…