“In my review of San Fransicko, I mentioned that it was hard to separate the effect of San Francisco’s local policies from the general 2020 spike in homicides, which I attributed to the Black Lives Matter protests and subsequent police pullback…
When exactly did the spike start? The nation shut down for the pandemic in mid-March 2020, but the BLM protests didn’t start until after George Floyd’s death in late May 2020. So did the homicide spike start in March, or May?
…Police interpreted the protests as a demand for less policing, and complied. Police felt angry and disrespected after the protests, and decided to police less in order to show everybody how much they needed them. Police worried they would be punished so severely for any fatal mistake that they made during policing that they were less willing to take the risk. The “Defund The Police” movement actually resulted in police being defunded, either of literal funds or political capital, and that made it harder for them to police.” Read more…
