In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020, Black Lives Matter, antifa and other Marxist organizations demanded law enforcement agencies be defunded. In an astonishing display of progressive Democrat solidarity, scores of mayors, city councils and county boards of supervisors in cities and counties across our country capitulated to the far left’s demands and sided with rioters, looters, anarchists and arsonists in destroying American cities.

The places most affected by the “defund the police” movement include Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, New York and Minneapolis. As law enforcement budgets in these cities were being cut and experienced officers retired and resigned, the obvious happened: Crime skyrocketed.

The toll on Black Americans is staggering. In 2020, the percentage of Black murder victims in Chicago was more than 70%. After the police budget was cut, that percentage rose to more than 80%.

Only the ideologically blinded were surprised by the rapid upswing in violent crime resulting from defunding the police. To paraphrase Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in Federalist No. 51: If men were angels, police wouldn’t be necessary.

But, alas, men are not angels, a fact causing serious concerns for congressional Democrats who must run in 2022. Having already lost seats over this issue to Republicans in the 2020 elections, Democrats are now desperate to distance themselves from the movement.

On July 1, Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson issued a writ of mandamus ordering Minneapolis to hire more than 700 new police officers no later than June 30, 2022. The plight of incumbent and aspiring Democrats instantly worsened.

With public opinion polls placing blame for the rise in crime squarely in the lap of their party, Democrats are frantic to find a way out of the mess they created. Should they defend defunding the police? That won’t work. How can they defend an increase in violent crime? Leftist Democrats are masters of deception, distortion and hypocritical finger pointing to avoid telling the truth.

As is their penchant, they decided to lie and blame defunding the police on Republicans. Cedric Richmond of the Biden administration was dispatched to talk shows to advance the absurd notion that Republicans defunded the police by voting against the Democrat’s turkey-riddled $350 billion aid-to-cities legislation.

Among the many problems with this pathetic attempt at blame-shifting is the legislation in question contained no funding earmarked for police. Rather, it is a federal bailout of poorly governed Democrat-run cities — the very places defunding their police. The cities with the largest spikes in crime are all controlled by Democrats. Defunding the police remains a bad idea birthed by Democrats, a fact Americans grasp no matter how hard Democrats and their media allies try to deny it.