Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that President Joe Biden is “kowtowing to the most radical people’ with his new policy proposals to stem the recent rise in crime.
“People are being stabbed. You have city parks being taken over with drugs. You have rampant shoplifting. You have brazened in the middle of the day attacks. You have a reduction in police capability. You have cops afraid to, you know, enforce the law because they may go to jail,” Graham said in a televised interview on Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Wednesday. “The liberal left has created this problem. And the Joe Biden of the 70's, who was tough on crime, no longer exists. Joe Biden today is kowtowing to the most radical people in this country on border security and crime.”
Biden laid out his “Five-Point Plan” Wednesday to address increasing crime throughout the country.
His plan, first and foremost, seeks to remove guns from the streets with a “comprehensive” plan to lower crime during the summer months.
To “stem” the flow of firearms, the Biden plan will hold “rogue” firearms dealers to account for violating federal laws.
According to the plan, gun dealers that violate federal laws by selling or transferring guns to prohibited persons, failing to run a background check, falsifying records, failing to respond to a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency tracing request, or failing to allow that agency to perform an inspection will lead to them losing their license under the “zero tolerance” policy.
He also wants to allow money from the American Rescue Plan that went to states and localities for the COVID-19 pandemic to be used to put more police officers on the beat.
Another part of the plan creates summer jobs and is designed to help previously incarcerated individuals return to society, according to the plan.
Graham, however, said the plan is not really getting at the cause of the increasing violence, especially in urban areas.
“The Biden five-point plan will not address the rise in murder and vicious assaults in this country,” he said. “We have a lack of prosecution and we've declared war on the police. And that is backfiring on those who have done it.”
According to statistics for May from the New York City Police Department, the overall crime rate index rose 22% compared to May of last year.
The increase was driven by a 46.7% increase in robberies, and a 35.6% increase in grand larcenies.
Felony assaults rose 20.5% compared to May of last year, and shootings incidents by 73% over last year, according to the department.