Violent crime is unquestionably on the rise, with Democrat-run cities especially those in the deep blue state of California being the hardest hit.

In recent weeks, “smash and grab” looting sprees in hot spots like San Francisco and Oakland have alarmed residents and local officials, causing some businesses to take drastic measures like closing stores early and in some cases boarding up the glass walls at the fronts of the stores to keep them from being smashed out by looters.

Two violent incidents in California, in particular, have led to leaders in some of these cities calling for more stringent and targeted actions against the perps. In one, a security guard at a mall store in Los Angeles was assaulted and in another case, private security guard and former police officer Kevin Nishita, who was protecting a news crew filming from the site of a previous smash and grab in downtown Oakland, was shot and killed.

With stories like those making national headlines as part of a disturbing national trend, Democrats including those in Washington, D.C., are being asked their thoughts on what’s going on. While Biden White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki has repeatedly dodged and weaved on the issue when asked about it, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was a little less cagey when the topic was brought up during her daily press briefing earlier today.

Here’s what she had to say:

Pelosi, D-Calif., made the comments when asked about recent comments from San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who is pushing a renewed effort to “change course on how we public safety” and crack down on crime.

“It’s absolutely outrageous. Obviously it cannot continue,” Pelosi said. “But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where… and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.

Watch Pelosi say she has no idea where the “attitude of lawlessness in our country … springs from” in the below clip:

Nancy Pelosi: “There is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where. Maybe you do.” pic.twitter.com/RKjgZm7Eh3

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 15, 2021

Hmm, I have a few thoughts, and they all revolve around the dangerous rhetoric and actions of powerful Democrats in her state — some of whom are near and dear to Nancy Pelosi’s heart.

There are the soft-on-crime District Attorneys who let out violent criminals, some of whom go on to commit violent crimes again. There are the laws that essentially make it to where the police won’t even bother to arrest robbers who hit drug stores and the like because they know prosecutors won’t take them to court. There are the Democrat-supported bail reform efforts, which some have blamed in part for the deadly Waukesha car-plowing massacre, which killed six including a child.

There are also the demeaning and hateful comments aimed at law enforcement in a show of support for the radical “Defund the Police” movement, which House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) reminded everyone of back in June during a Fox News interview. Some of the despicable remarks came from Pelosi herself, Scalise noted.

“Everybody knows it was Democrats who started this crazy, radical, extremist move to defund police,” Scalise stated at the time. “All the big city mayors that defunded their police, whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, Chicago – they’re all Democrats.”

Then Scalise turned up the heat on Pelosi and other Congressional Democrats, noting that “Speaker Pelosi just recently called police ‘stormtroopers.’” Also, he pointed out, “you had one of her top lieutenants in Congress on the Democrat side [say] police are inherently racist and need to be abolished.”

“Now they’re seeing the dumpster fire they created,” he observed before dropping facts about crime in Democrat-run cities. “I mean crime’s up – almost 80 shootings in Chicago over the weekend where they defunded police. And so what is their answer to admit they were wrong? They never admit they were wrong. They’re just going to try to blame somebody else.”

Either that or they’ll do as Pelosi did in her presser today by pretending she has no idea where the “attitude of lawlessness in our country … springs from.”

She knows. They all know. But they’re loath to admit it. Because if they did they’d have to take responsibility for their own culpability in fostering an anti-police atmosphere that has emboldened violent criminals in big cities all across the country to do what they do. In the process, scores of people have been victimized, some violently so and others, tragically, were killed as a result.

If Democrats want to reverse course on demonizing the police, that’s more than fine by me. If they want to implement more aggressive measures to stem the violent crime spikes in their cities and states, that’s fine by me, too. But what I will never let them get away with is pretending they don’t know why the spikes started in the first place.

There’s a direct correlation between the rise in crime over the last year and a half and the coordinated pushes by the activist left and their fanatical supporters in Congress to defund the police/decrease their presence. Not a single American needs to forget that inconvenient fact, not now, not during the 2022 midterms, not ever.

Flashback:
– San Francisco to Pay $300 to Not Shoot People; Also Known as, ‘Stupid Solutions for $500’
– ‘Follow-Home’ Robberies So Bad in Los Angeles, Police Issue ‘Cooperate and Comply’ Alert