McEnany Scorches Democrats Over Crime Surges In Cities After ‘Defund The Police’ Calls: ‘There Are Consequences’

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed Democratic leaders during Tuesday’s press conference over the “defund the police” movements that many Democrats have given into by showing how violent crime has increased in those areas.

“I would like to end just by highlighting a troubling trend that I think we’ve seen play out across the country, and I believe we have a few graphics to illustrate this. It pertains to the ‘Defund the Police’ movement,” McEnany said toward the end of the press conference. “And when you look at, across the country, the ties of defunding the police with increases in violence, it’s a cause for concern. As we saw in the beginning of this administration, violent crime was starting to come down, and then bring in the ‘Defund the Police’ movement.”

“In Los Angeles, you had L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti proposing a cut of $150 million from the LAPD. L.A. Mayor Garcetti said this: ‘It starts someplace, and we have to say we are going to be who we want to be, or we’re going to continue being the killers that we are,’ was his quote, in support of the defund movement,” McEnany said in her first example. “And as a result, we saw a 14 percent rise in homicides this year over last year.”

“In Minneapolis, the ‘Defund the Police’ movement was afoot as well, with a unanimous vote in Minneapolis City and their council to dismantle the police. And you had Minneapolis City council member Jeremiah Ellison saying, ‘This is one action of many that we need to take on the road to a more equitable and just system that keeps people safe.’ In fact, it did not keep people safe,'” McEnany said for her second example. “We’ve seen a 94 percent increase in homicides compared to last year in Minneapolis.”

“And then, finally, in New York City, ‘Defund the Police’ — you had the New York City Council voting to cut police budget by $1 billion. You had Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, ‘Defund the police means defunding the police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math,'” McEnany gave as her final example. “So it wasn’t enough for AOC. But you did have New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio saying, ‘We think it’s the right thing to do.’ It was absolutely not the right thing to do, as we’ve seen a 177 percent increase in shootings from July 2019 in New York.”

“When you defund the police, there are consequences,” McEnany concluded. “And that’s where the Democrats of today stand. And, unfortunately, we’ve seen a corresponding rise in violence in these Democrat cities, and it’s not acceptable.”

Another example, which McEnany did not mention, comes out of Portland where the city disbanded their gun violent unit at the start of last month and ended up finishing the month with the most homicides in over 30 years.