By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

The mood throughout the country is grim, with the vast majority feeling that America is headed in the wrong direction, but can you blame them? With the everything going up to levels unseen in decades, then add in rising crime the American people want answers and they want them now!

President Biden and the Democratic Party are trying to get ahead of this narrative, considering for the past few years especially after the death of George Floyd, Democrats have espoused a “defund the police” mantra.

Democrats claim this was a false narrative pushed forward by Republicans, but evidence goes contrary to their claim.

Progressive Democrat Representative Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has championed the “defund the police” movement as well as others such has Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has pushed this same policy.

Many Democrats still claim that this “defund the police” movement is a continued false narrative by the Republican Party to label Democrats as soft on crime and anti-police.

Then candidate Joe Biden never explicitly stated “defund the police,” but did suggest that funding should be directed to other areas such as public schools, summer programs, and mental health programs.

The other aspect that President Biden and Democrats failed to address is that progressive prosecutors across the country have decided to initiate their own criminal justice reform by advocating and implementing bail reform, which means they set ridicules low bail amounts for most crimes no matter the criminal background of the defendant?

In almost all metropolitan cities progressive district attorneys have allowed criminals to walk free often recommitting additional crimes.

This pursuit of progressive criminal justice reform has embolden criminals as we have witnessed the surge of crimes across America, especially the recent crime wave thought the country including the blue state of California.

California’s soft on crime policies have been going on for some time, but was further exacerbated in November 2014, California voters voted for Proposition 47 with a nearly 60 percent approval that would reduce six non-violent felonies (including certain drug offenses) to misdemeanors, and required misdemeanor sentencing for property crimes in which the value of the property involved is less than $950. Prior to the passage of Prop-47 the threshold for felony sentencing was $500. With the voter approved passage of Prop 47 the change were immediately implemented and this initiative also allowed for re-sentencing of people convicted and sentenced before passage of Prop 47.

Does anyone wonder why crime has spiked in the Golden State?

Early in his administration President Biden facing a surge in crime in America’s urban cities, announced a comprehensive strategy on crime prevention that almost exclusively focused on the reduction of gun crimes.

Many liberal/progressive pundits and academics blamed the surge of crime on a variety of factors to include that crime always escalates during the summer, the shutdown from the coronavirus pandemic and President Biden is no different.

Last year Biden released a report that focuses his administration’s efforts to end cash bail as he stated, “And we will work to end cash bail and reform our pretrial system, recognizing the harm these processes cause, particularly for Black women and families.” It does do harm to these communities by releasing criminals right back into the communities to re-victimize the victims even more.

For almost two years the country has been consumed with relentless coverage of the coronavirus, the struggling U.S. economy, and racial unrest, but little attention has even remotely focused on the other core issues which permeate in America’s urban cities.

As the media focused exclusively on social justice, missed entirely or by choice is how these cities are presently being governed, even President Biden failed to ever mention any of the dysfunction of governance in America’s urban core.

Could it be by mistake or if Biden addressed governance in America’s urban cities he would be then forced to admit that Democratic policies aren’t working and are the major contributing factors to the surge in crime.

The civic leaders in many of these American cities consistently blame a host of problems to why there cities are an unmitigated disaster from the economic shutdown from the coronavirus, lack of federal funding, systemic racism, educational disparities and other issues, but they never examine that their own progressive polices have contributed to failed communities.

Cities across America are reeling from a host of challenges, but Democrats still blame others for their predicament, failing to address that America’s urban centers were facing problems way before COVID-19 engulfed this country.

Take the example of Atlanta as a case study, this city has not had a Republican mayor since 1879, the average of Democratic one-party rule of American cities is around 65 years.

Almost all of these Democratic controlled cities are governed by a strong-mayor form of governance. This means the mayor and the city council have direct control on who is appointed and serves on many boards and commissions. This especially includes school boards. With all the protests by parents in support of educational reforms has any mayor been asked why they have supported many of the school board members with political and financial support, but refuse to openly confront them on why they produce such dismal educational results?

With the nation spending close to $800 billion on education, why do 70% of black and Hispanic are deficient at grade level in math and English, and it worse now after the coronavirus lock down of the nation’s schools.

Cities across America have watered down what police are able to accomplish, such as New York City which banned qualified immunity, thus allowing citizens to openly sue law enforcement for violating their constitutional rights. Now law enforcement will second guess any decision they make as not wanting to be sued and placed into financial ruin.

Various America cities have enacted criminal justice reform not at the legislative level but by progressive district attorneys, with bail reform at the state level.  The state of New York State overhauled its bail law in April 2019 that reduced the number of crime’s judges can set bail for. This is a full listing of all the crimes that fall under the recent enacted bail reform law passed in New York State.

The state of Illinois just passed and the governor signed the SAFE-Act that further hamstrings law enforcement and allows criminals back onto the streets.

These progressive prosecutors fail to prosecute crimes, and have decriminalized quality of life crimes, and are refusing to charge anyone with a misdemeanor, thus they are being released to commit more serious offenses.

The question that should be asked and many American’s are unaware of is that many of these cities have been run by Democrats for decades. The progressive policies they have enacted have had a severe impact on the black and Hispanic communities, now many are clamoring for a federal bailout, which they received as part of Biden’s stimulus act.

Democrats claim to want to help “people of color,” but their own progressive policies have had a detrimental impact on these communities. Unfortunately, this is only one of many problems facing American cities!

As crime spirals out of control, many district attorneys and aspiring candidates have benefited and continue to benefit from the generous donations from liberal billionaire George Soros organization.  Both Soros and other liberal organizations have sought to reshape the criminal justice system by implementing progressive socialistic reforms.

The surest way out poverty is with a solid education; unfortunately, all the attention has centered on policing in the inner-city neighborhoods.  With all the focus on policing, literally nothing has been done about the state of the dysfunctional U.S. public education system. This despicable failure has led to an enormous educational achievement gap in black and Hispanic children who often attend public funded city schools; this is because these children and their parents have no other choice.

Far too often the rallying cry has been that “Black Lives Matter,” but if this is the case why do black and Hispanic children have the most dismal educational achievement gaps?

As I learned in my youth from a father who never achieved education beyond the 5th grade, that the surest way out of poverty is with a solid education. One only has to exam the National Assessment of Education Progress and the dismal progress of black and Hispanic children. Over 70% of black and Hispanic children cannot do English or math to grade level. The media has failed to mention this or press Democrats on this issue since they have controlled the major U.S. cities for decades.

If you look across America at the cities of St. Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Newark, Buffalo and Philadelphia all of them are governed by liberal Democrats.  If one does just a basic rudimentary internet search, they would find that many of these cities haven’t had a Republican mayor in over sixty some years, with some dating back to the late 1800’s.

Don’t expect the educational opportunities for black and Hispanic children to get better under a Biden administration, or that their schools will improve.

The Democratic Party has sealed its fate by aligning itself with the powerful teacher’s union who oppose any and all charter schools or any form of school choice for black and Hispanic children who are forced to attend chronically failing schools. Just examine how the Democratic Party and President Biden have failed to stand up to their teacher union benefactors.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of the NAEP long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students to examine student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics.

Democrats routinely sound the alarm of income inequality and racial injustice, but their own education and economic polices contribute to the low educational achievements of black and Hispanic students.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had consistently spared with former President Trump but she is never asked why over 70% of black students cannot do English or math to grade level?  Considering the last Republican mayor of Washington D.C. was in 1910.

Crime isn’t the only problem facing American cities, dysfunctional socialist Democratic polices that perpetrate failed educational achievement for black and Hispanic children.  Democrats are never asked this nor has the media reported on the failure of urban American cities that have been run by Democrats for decades.

Maybe one needs to ask President Biden, why do your polices keep black and Hispanic families enslaved to a lifetime of poverty?   Nothing that Biden stated will solve the surge in crime in America, if the other factors are not addressed as well.