IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12 September 2025WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932A solution to America’s Third World crime rateBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – The Charlie Kirk assassination once again exposes the violent nature of our nation. High crime rates, school shootings, and political assassinations set America apart from most other highly civilized nations. Major metropolises such as London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing look like law-and-order meccas in comparison.New Orleans, Memphis, Baltimore, and Detroit rank between 28 and 50 of the worst violent crime-ridden cities in the world. No European or Asian nations made the list. As a nation, the United States ranks third in homicide rate statistics, just behind Mexico and Brazil.What is behind these terrible statistics, and what can be done? It comes down to three things: guns, police, and taxes.America’s well-known gun culture, based upon macho images of frontiersmen and cowboys, continues to influence the national psyche and hinder sensible laws such as registering guns and licensing gun owners.Meanwhile, inadequate police forces constrained by property tax revenue, the source of most of their funding, inhibit deterrence.We have long written about the need for more police on the beat on the street, but this was last seriously addressed during the Clinton administration, which provided direct funding for crime prevention.Today, the Trump administration has come up with a new method. It is sending federalized National Guard and regular military units to patrol streets in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and planning to do likewise in Memphis, Chicago and elsewhere.The problem is that such deployments run counter to the Posse Comitatus law that prohibits the use of military forces for domestic law enforcement, except during an emergency such as an insurrection. Further, most citizens are uncomfortable with fatigue-clad soldiers carrying automatic weapons patrolling their streets, and state and local politicians have condemned the practice.However, something unexpected seems to be bubbling to the surface. The mayor of Washington, D.C., and the governor of Louisiana are warming to the idea. Why? Money. They realize that the federal government is augmenting their police forces with federally paid troops.The problem is that the siren call of federal funds is luring these officials into an acceptance of militarized cities, and this cannot stand. They need to embrace the help, but not the means. What state and local governments need are federal funds earmarked to increase the number of police officers.America needs congenial, neighborhood-connected police who are trusted and respected by law-abiding citizens and feared by criminals, and this is not going to be accomplished through increased property taxes, which the public already laments as being far too high.It is unconscionable that we continue to express outrage with each new tragedy and proceed to do nothing to prevent recurrences. Neither local tax increases nor federal soldiers are the answer. And while gun-control measures continue to languish in Congress, the only viable solution is for federal funds to supplement state and local law enforcement forces. See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2025 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
CandC-12-September-2025-A-solution-to-America’s-Third-World-crime-rate.docx