Mobs Reach Outlying Neighborhoods As Cities Pull Back Police

Rioters and political mobs in urban areas across the nation are rapidly expanding their confrontations into neighborhoods and quiet residential communities.

Attacks are becoming increasingly aggressive, even targeting people just for displaying an American flag in their own home. Rioters are showing up in restaurants and residential areas, shouting at diners and demanding that they express support for BLM, in places such as Portland, Rochester, New York, City, and Washington, D.C.

Protesters marched outside the suburban-Louisville home of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), “occupying” his neighborhood in protest of the plan for the U.S. Senate to consider a Supreme Court replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Daily Wire reports. It was unclear whether McConnell was at home during the disturbance, so the activists turned their attention to his neighbors, urging them not to vote to reelect McConnell to the Senate this November.

A noisy mob disrupted the neighborhood of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) with an early morning march, the New York Post reports.

“Anyone who is seeing this can do the same thing to your representative, can do the same thing, learning about how to hold them accountable,” one of the marchers announced. “Make sure they know if they do some evil f–king s–t, they know there will be consequences for it.”

A spokesperson for Graham apologized to the senator’s neighbors for the disturbance.

Columnist Katrina Trinko says these disturbances are not legitimate forms of political engagement.

“If you don’t think Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacancy should be filled before the election, guess what? You’re welcome to let your lawmakers know your opinion (and they all have dedicated staffers to listen to your perspective),” writes Trinko at The Daily Signal. “But going to lawmakers’ homes is sick and twisted. It’s intimidating and it’s personal. And unfortunately, it seems to be a tactic leftists are using more and more frequently.”

As the aggressive tactics expand further into residential neighborhoods, the hope for police security becomes dimmer in locations where defund-the-police plans are in play. With fewer police on the street and morale diminishing among those who remain, city residents are experiencing a further erosion of security.

Taxpaying citizens in Minneapolis lost much of their local police presence when the department budget was cut in the wake of the George Floyd disturbances, and now their tax dollars are being redirected to “violence interrupters,” FOX News reports. As residents endure an increase in crimes such as daylight carjacking, robberies, assaults, shootings, and street racing, calls for help go unanswered. “Where are the police?” residents are asking.

The city council of Seattle also cut funds for the police and has hired a former pimp to be a “Street Czar,” FOX News reports. This newly created position pays $150,000, but the exact job description is unclear. The contract states Street Czar Andre Taylor is expected to “advise the city of Seattle” and be a “community liaison.” Taylor advised the CHOP Zone activists to demand $2 million from the city, in hopes of getting at least half that much.

Columnist Mark Steyn told FOX News that considering social activism as an alternative to policing is a “joke” and “part of why civilization is in decline.”

Portland has experienced a 200 percent increase in shootings since the city removed $15 million from the police budget, FOX News reports. The increase in shootings is tied to the elimination of the city’s gun violence reduction team, Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner told FOX. Turner described an incident in one neighborhood where 150 rounds were fired.

“Shots were fired indiscriminately, in the neighborhood, in the houses, in the places where people live, where people play and where people want to raise their families,” Turner said. “Defunding the police is just a political stunt.”

In Rochester, New York, Mayor Lovely Warren fired the police chief, removed other top police officials, and suspended seven officers after the Daniel Prude killing and ensuing riots. Warren said the entire police command staff will be leaving soon.

The loss of experienced officers is likely to affect the city’s policing efforts for many years to come, and filling the vacated positions will be a challenge. Michael Mazzeo, president of the local police union, told The Wall Street Journal the turmoil in Rochester and the undermining of the police force there will make it difficult for the city to hire any qualified police chief.

“Right now, I am not sure that anybody who could handle the job would want that job,” Mazzeo said.

In the meantime, homicides and shootings are increasing in Rochester, consistent with what has happened in other cities that have cut police funding or otherwise disrupted law enforcement functions.

In New York City, crime is soaring, particularly on the Upper East Side, where many of the most affluent residents live, Breitbart reports. The neighborhood has endured a 286 percent increase in robberies. Residents across the city have been suffering from the dramatic increase in crime for the last several months. The expansion into the Upper East Side targets the ultrawealthy in their upscale residential neighborhoods.

“The surge in violent crime comes as Democrat leaders increase their calls to defund the police,” Breitbart reports. “In June, NYPD effectively disbanded its anti-crime units, which focused on getting illegal weapons off the streets, and reassigned them to different tasks.”

“I’ve noticed that more and more residential areas are now under attack,” writes columnist John Nolte for Breitbart. “In the past, while we have seen the terrorists move into neighborhoods, it has been in search of political targets like a city mayor or police chief … or a Tucker Carlson.

“As of late, though, the terrorists’ tactics have shifted—not to political targets in residential areas, but to residents in residential areas,” Nolte writes.