On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Briefing,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) stated that “in too many cities,” “quality of life degradations, the shoplifting, the open-air drug use, the loitering, the encampments” haven’t been responded to by police “and we’ve got to do a better job of that. It undermines social order, otherwise.”
Auchincloss said, “D.C. is subject to the president and Congress in a way that no other American city is. It would be grossly inappropriate to try to militarize the police forces of any American city, a violation of the principle of posse comitatus. And when he tried it in Los Angeles, I, and many others, spoke out forcefully against it, and it mattered. And I think he did feel like he touched a hot stove there and had to pull back.”
He continued, “I think, to your point, Jen, about the crime, it’s not only that you can’t get crime down to zero, I think there’s also a distinction between the violent crime that everyone agrees is totally unacceptable, gun crime and murder and homicide, rape, assault, but also sort of quality of life degradations, the shoplifting, the open-air drug use, the loitering, the encampments, the things that, in too many cities, I don’t think the police have been responding to and that degrade people’s sense of safety. But people deserve to feel safe in public accommodations, and not just safe, they deserve to feel comfortable, and we’ve got to do a better job of that. It undermines social order, otherwise.”
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