Heather Mac Donald: Democrat Soft-on-Crime Policies a ‘Recipe for Destroying Civilization’

The soft-on-crime policies of the left and Democrats are a “recipe for destroying civilization,” said Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and among the nation’s foremost statisticians of crime, as she blasted the resulting soaring homicide rates across the United States.

In an interview with Steve Malzberg on his weekly Eat the Press commentary show, New York Times best-selling author Heather Mac Donald addressed the recent sharp rise in crime throughout the country.

“The Bodies Don’t Lie”

Asked about recent remarks by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who was accused of mocking Fox News’ coverage of the nationwide crime surge, Mac Donald described them as “absolutely appalling.”

“Her flippant reaction to thousands more dead black bodies should be automatically disqualifying for this administration if she is its spokesman,” she said. 

“The left and Democrats continue to view crime as a racist fiction [but] the bodies don’t lie,” she added. “And the police bodies don’t lie.”

In an interview with liberal podcast Pod Save America last month, Psaki referred to Fox’s reporting on “soft-on-crime consequences,” stating: “I mean, what does that even mean, right?” 

“So there’s an alternate universe on some coverage,” Psaki added. “What’s scary about it is a lot of people watch that.”

“Recipe for Destroying Civilization”

Mac Donald also cited stats to demonstrate that while “libertarians love to claim that policing is a relatively safe profession… the rate at which police officers were gunned down last year in these ambush assassinations is larger by a thousandfold than the rate at which unarmed blacks are killed by the cops.”

As a result, she claimed, policing is far less safe than imagined.

“So if it’s safe to be a police officer, it is really safe to be an unarmed black person in this country vis-à-vis the cops,” she asserted.

“[However] it’s not so safe vis-à-vis black thugs who are recklessly taking black lives in inner-city areas because the cops have been so demonized,” she added. “And they are also taking cops’ lives.”

She also accused liberal prosecutors of emboldening criminals by softening their attitudes toward crime.

“We have these left-wing prosecutors, whether it’s George Gascón in Los Angeles or the newly-elected [DA] Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, who declare that they’re not even going to prosecute the crime of resisting arrest,” she said.

“That sends a very clear message to the criminal element that they can defy lawful authority with impunity, and that is the recipe for destroying civilization,” she added. 

Gun Control “Not the Problem”

Mac Donald described President Biden’s meeting earlier this month with New York City mayor Eric Adams, pledging to combat “gun trafficking across state lines and city boundaries,” as a “complete charade” and “a dramatic performance to try and show that Biden somehow gets it about the police.” 

“He does not,” she said. 

She also blasted Biden’s “absolute gall” for seeking to “reinvigorate his false narrative about policing being a threat to black lives” at a national memorial service for slain officers. 

“The man is incorrigible,” she said.

The real problem, Mac Donald argued, “is criminals.”

“[Guns are] not the problem, she said, noting that “New York has very strong gun control.” 

“There [are] places that have a much much higher per capita gun ownership rate, legal ownership, than New York City: places like Vermont, Israel, [and] Switzerland — with virtually no gun crime.”

She then explained what produced the high rates of criminality.

“The problem is that we have a family breakdown,” she said. “You have a pathological inner-city culture that glorifies violence; that glorifies antisocial behavior, thuggery, the anti-acting-white syndrome, [and] the misogyny.”

“And those kids are not being socialized,” she added. “And then you have an establishment that justifies lawbreaking in the name of racial justice — that’s the problem.” 

She also blamed the president for his policies for the violence.

“When you have a president who continues to say the police are racist, what that results in is the police backing off — what I’ve called the Ferguson effect; we can rename it the Minneapolis effect after the George Floyd race riots — and when cops back off the result is absolutely predictable: More black lives taken in these insane drive-by shootings,” she said.

Left Driving Country to “Police State”

Asked about a recent incident wherein a substitute teacher provoked a verbal argument about a “Thin Blue Line” flag on a mask a California middle school student wore to class, Mac Donald blasted the “cowardly public officials” who’ve banned the symbol in jurisdictions across the country.

To those attempting to depict one showing support for law enforcement as “racist,” she offered the following advice:

“Here’s what they should say: ‘Shut up! You are alive today because of the rule of law, because of respect for law enforcement,’” she said, as she blasted the labeling of such support by some as “fascist or totalitarianism.” 

She also lamented the widespread ignorance concerning history and the potential for lawless government.

“America is clueless about the abuses of a police state, how government can get out of control, and the preciousness of our rule of law and tradition of due process,” she said. “We do not live under a police state, yet we’re getting there thanks to the left.”

“But at this point to so mock the police, to underestimate how important they are in keeping things under control —which they’re now out of control — [even leaving] aside violent street shootings, merely the looting that is going on on a weekly if not daily basis is not acceptable,” she concluded.

Crime Surge

Mac Donald’s remarks come as crime has surged nationwide after progressives campaigned endlessly against police, leading to eroded confidence in law enforcement, sunken police morale, and an officer exodus.

More police officers were intentionally killed in the line of duty in the year since President Biden became president than in any other year since 1995, according to an FBI database. 

Last Friday, 13 police officers in different parts of the country were shot during a 24-hour time frame.

In addition, at least 16 major U.S. cities — the vast majority of which are Democrat-run — have broken annual homicide records this past year. 

In December, Mac Donald blasted current criminal justice reform policies which signal to criminals that even “appalling, savage” crimes have no consequences, calling the narrative of minorities under threat from police in America a “completely false” one perpetuated by the Biden administration and the media, while warning that “civilization is breaking down” as the country undergoes a “slow-motion riot.”

In May, she scolded the media for ignoring widespread black-on-black crime while conveying a false narrative of rampant racist policing, stating, “there is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police.”

Last week, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) blamed liberal policies for fueling the rise in crime while blasting the Biden administration for refusing to enforce the law.

“We are seeing a significant rise in crime and violent crime across the United States and this is because of this administration’s lack of wherewithal in enforcing law and order,” she said.

“We see it with liberal district attorneys,” she added, blaming “progressive policies out there that actually make it a crime to punish the crime.”