Devine: US Crime surge is a 'direct result' of the 'so-called criminal justice reforms' hindering police

In response to an MSNBC guest's argument that police are "butt hurt" over reform push, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine slammed Democrats' "demonization" of law enforcement on Monday's "Fox News Primetime," claiming the left and "their whole defund the police movement" are directly responsible for the surge in violent crime across the nation.

MSNBC GUEST BLAMES ‘COWARDLY’ POLICE FOR RISING CRIME, CLAIMS THEY ARE ‘BUTTHURT’

MIRANDA DEVINE: It's just more of the same demonization and blaming the police for the problems that we see now that are directly the fault of the Democrats and their whole 'defund the police' movement. Even Joe Biden, who now pretends that he is for the police, was at the height of the anti-cop movement last year. He was talking about directing, redirecting funds away from the police, which is just defunding the police in another way. Kamala Harris was promoting funds to bail out rioters who had been attacking police. What's happening now with crime in our cities, is a direct result of the demonization and also these new bail reform laws and a whole suite of other so-called criminal justice reforms which have tied the police hands. In Times Square you've had in the last two months three separate shootings and it's lucky that no one's died. Tourists have been shot. And I asked a police officer there, they stand there. I said, why is this happening? Why can't you stop these aggressive cd sellers from molesting and harassing people walking past? And they say to me ... 'If we do anything we can't stop and frisk. If something goes wrong, if we try to arrest them, they can sue us because the police now have lost their qualified immunity from prosecution.' They can lose their houses. So, of course, they're not doing anything. Of course, they're quitting the police forces and they're leaving these cities at the mercy of the worst, most violent thugs … 

They've [Democrats] seen the polls and they know that they're in trouble. They know that voters' number one issue is crime. You just have to look at the New York mayoral race where Eric Adams is ahead and he is the ex-cop who ran on a stopping crime platform. And so the Democrats know that. And what is their way of responding? Not to change their policies, which they know are deeply unpopular. It is to lie. It is to gaslight. It is this staggering dishonesty that has become the hallmark of the Biden administration. I'm sorry to say. You had Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, saying today that, oh, no, it's actually the Republicans' fault. The Republicans defunded the police, the Republicans, are the ones that have caused this crime problem. It's so breathtaking. You almost have no defense against it. 

Fox News contributor and media opinion columnist for The Hill Joe Concha also opined on the state of law enforcement in the U.S. amid the left's "defund the police" movement and an MSNBC's guests claims that police are the root cause of the surge in crime across the nation, claiming "people like this" shouldn't be given a platform because they "part of the problem."

JOE CONCHA: Let's stop putting people like this on the air and giving them a national platform here because she is part of the problem, not the solution. She uses a term like 'butthurt.' My brain hurts after hearing that argument. She should really consider, I don't know, reading or watching maybe this network some time because she would know that in New York City, you have murders up nearly 50 percent from pre-pandemic 2019. Atlanta up nearly 60 percent. Portland up 800 percent. Seattle up their highest level in terms of homicides in 26 years. 

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE: