Eugene Tete, 51, was among Moore’s supporters, who said in an interview that public safety is the most important issue, along with education. Mr Tete, who lives in the suburbs of Howard County but does business in Baltimore, said he was concerned about how “congested” the city’s police looked. Young people, he said, are particularly vulnerable on messy and dangerous streets.
“There must be more to these children there than that,” he said.
Todd Scott, 59, a voter for Mr Moore’s rally, said he wanted to see the next governor take a holistic approach to fighting crime and its root causes. A state housing official, Mr. Scott, said he admired outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who is fighting for police funding, and has faced local Democrats who are outraged by what they see as his tough style.
“The number one focus in preserving our city and our country where it needs to be is crime,” Mr Scott said.
He added that the fight against crime must involve more than imprisoning criminals. “You need to focus on all the issues that lead our young people to crime – which is housing, which is education,” he said.
The shadow of defundation
In 2020, Democrats faced a series of attacks by Republicans who denounced them as indifferent to violent crime and linked the party as a whole to a progressive criminal justice program that includes channeling money from political departments and reducing the prosecution of crimes by low level.
A report compiled in 2021 by three major Democrat interest groups, including the centrist organization Third Way, concludes that Democrats have held the last election “trapped in defense” of crime. The report states that the party must have a “proactive history of the necessary systematic changes in the police that would stop the violence and still prioritize and ensure public safety.”
President Biden stressed the funding of public safety in his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which allocates huge sums of money to state and local services. Last month, the president held an event with police chiefs urging cities to spend money on aid to a law enforcement pandemic ahead of an expected summer jump in crime. And on Thursday night, he made a direct call in a televised address to the nation for Congress to act on arms legislation.
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