US 'seeing a huge shift' in pro-law enforcement rhetoric, legislation: National Police Association
The United States is 'seeing a huge shift' in pro-law enforcement rhetoric and legislation after the 2024 election, National Police Association spokesperson Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Ret.) told Fox News Digital.
Law and order made a strong comeback in 2024, with voters across the U.S. rejecting soft-on-crime policies touted by progressive district attorneys and voting to bolster police budgets once slashed by the defund police movement.
The progressive crime agenda, largely pushed by liberal megadonor George Soros, suffered a string of major defeats in November, with voters soundly rejecting progressive prosecutors, blaming their permissive policies for rising crime in the U.S. as alleged drug dealers, thieves and repeat offenders were returned to the streets within hours of their arrests.
The rejection of soft-on-crime policies
In November, California voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 36, which sought to restore tough penalties for drugs and theft. Every single county in the state voted in favor of the proposition.
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Progressives suffered another major loss in the city of Los Angeles, where District Attorney George Gascón, backed by Soros, was defeated by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman as crime was seen as a top issue of the election cycle.
Gascón was ushered into office in 2020 amid a reckoning over police misconduct and national calls for criminal justice reform. His directives — such as the elimination of cash bail, not seeking the death penalty and refusing to try underage defendants charged with violent crimes as adults — led to two recall attempts as voters accused him of letting criminals run rampant in the city.
Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, left, and Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP, right.)
Residents viewed Gascón’s policies as a "middle finger" to victims of crime. Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of the book "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities," told Fox News Digital, adding that the "Achilles heel" of the progressive prosecutor movement continues to be the "invalidity and lack of common sense" that leads "directly to rising crime rates."
In another loss for Soros-backed prosecutors in the Golden State, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price was recalled, less than two years after taking office following backlash for her alleged soft-on-crime approach.
Oakland Democratic Mayor Sheng Thao, who faced heat from her constituents amid rising crime, was also ousted from office after her recall effort passed with 65% of the vote.
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In other areas of the liberal bastion state, hard-on-crime San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins comfortably beat out prosecutor Ryan Khojasteh, the handpicked candidate of former district attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled in 2022. San Francisco's Democratic Mayor London Breed also lost her re-election campaign as crime remained a major concern of voters.
Former San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In Georgia, the progressive District Attorney of Athens-Clarke and Oconee Counties, Deborah Gonzalez, was tossed out by 20%. She represented the same county where nursing student Laken Riley was allegedly killed by an illegal migrant, who had been arrested and then released before the brutal crime.
Oregon's Nathan Vasquez, a longtime prosecutor, beat his boss, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, in a nonpartisan primary election in May. Vasquez launched a tough-on-crime-campaign, receiving endorsements from several police groups, crime victims and business owners. Residents blamed Schmidt's revolving door policies for exacerbating crime and creating a feeling of lawlessness in the City of Roses, cheering Vasquez's victory as an indication that Americans are finally turning the page on the woke left's approach to crime.
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Sean Kennedy, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund’s policy director, told Fox News Digital in November that out of the roughly 75 Soros-linked prosecutors his organization has identified since 2022, over 30 have left office, while 20 have been replaced by traditional district attorneys.
The end of the defund police movement
In 2020, local and federal politicians met demands from protesters to "defund" or "dismantle" police departments across the country. Intending to reform the criminal justice system, they passed bills aimed at moving police funds to other entities or changing the way police pursue suspects after George Floyd's murder.
But as homicide rates and violent crime rose rapidly, Americans began to push back. Four years later, residents are frustrated with the state of crime in some areas and sought in the 2024 election to give more power and funding to law enforcement.
People walk in Washington, D.C. after "Defund The Police" was painted on the street near the White House on June 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
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In November, Colorado voters approved a ballot referendum that earmarked $350 million of the state's budget for recruiting, training and retaining law enforcement officers. Earlier in the year, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston cut $8 million from its police department spending to help fund programs for the soaring number of migrants arriving in the city.
In Arizona, voters approved Proposition 314, which will make entering the country illegally a state crime on top of a federal crime and broadens the power of police officers to arrest those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Voters in Dallas, Texas also showed support for pro-law enforcement initiatives, voting for Proposition U, which won by just over 50% and aims to increase funding for the police department, requiring it to maintain a force of 4,000 officers.
Voters voted to bolster police budgets in November after four years of grappling with the ramifications of the defund police movement. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In Vermont, community leaders in Burlington, a town currently dealing with troubling levels of homelessness, drug addiction and crime, are also actively exploring ways to boost the city's police presence and bolster police resources after the force was partially defunded in 2020.
Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told Fox News Digital that the renewed funding is "a really positive step to show law enforcement that they are supported, that they're going to be funded, and then they're going to have the resources necessary to do their jobs."
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As departments across the country work to recover from low recruitment and morale caused by the defund police frenzy, voters sent a strong message about "where the public stands for law enforcement."
Fox News' Audrey Conklin, Michael Dorgin, Andrew Mark Miller and Christina Coulter contributed to this report.
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