Free Republic

Reading a campaign speech in Milwaukee this week, Joe Biden boasted of a plan to spend some $36 million on a stretch of 6th Street, just west of downtown Milwaukee. His speechwriter had him listing such federally funded benefits as bike lanes, newly planted trees, and bus lanes to make 6th Street a prettier place to be. And sure, it might at that. Trees are always lovely for pedestrians, though they can obstruct the view of pedestrians, drivers, and bicyclists alike. And bicycles and buses are always generically popular, even though in Milwaukee they each tend to have about the...

Our cities are filled with extreme violence, and the blood of the innocent flows in our streets, and yet most Americans still seem to be in denial about what is happening. This isn’t just a momentary spike in violent crime that we are witnessing. The increase in violent crime that we experienced in 2020 was unprecedented, and things have been even worse in 2021. If you are not familiar with those numbers, here is a reminder… Police and public reported data details that from January through March of 2021, the homicide rate rose by 28% from the same period last...

In Seattle this week, a group of assorted Democrat activists (some Antifa, some BLM, some veterans of earlier radical groups like Occupy, and of course some garden-variety looters and thugs) took over an eight block section of Seattle and declared it the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone, imagining themselves a new and independent country. The establishment of CHAZ has naturally inspired an endless number of jokes, from comparisons of the area to Sonny and Cher’s daughter of the same name, to humor at their first action: shameless begging for vegan food and comfortable pants for today’s fashionable radical. But this is...

Hi everyone. I need help. I'm trying to find the evidentiary support for the statement made by many commentators and the president that minorities want more police in their neighborhoods. The search engines are leading me to everything else. Does anyone have a couple of good links on that? Thank you.

We all know that in Democratic-run cities, like New York City these protesters can do whatever they want. However, what would happen if they come in the lily-white suburbs? Would it be tolerated? It's not Giuliani's city anymore. De Blasio makes Dinkins look like shellwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeNijge8SfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KwzUahc9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_pfodaTlNA

Foul-mouthed, anti-cop lawbreakers jumped turnstiles en masse during wild demonstrations in Brooklyn, disturbing footage shows. “F–k this s–t!” screamed those among the hundreds who swarmed the Hoyt–Schermerhorn station in Downtown Brooklyn Friday night to protest the NYPD’s planned crackdown on fare evaders. Footage of the scene posted to DailyMotion shows cops getting jeered by protesters, who belt out “F–k You!” as they flip off the Finest.

You may not like the messenger, but embedded in the recent political dust-up about the crime, poverty, and despair in Baltimore were some undeniable truths. If nothing else comes out of this latest debate, the bright light is now shining on a very inconvenient reality: Liberal policies have failed the people of Baltimore and inner cities everywhere. As the daughter of a former welfare recipient who spent my early years growing up in government housing, I know the truth of that statement more than most. For decades, politicians have repeatedly promised urban communities good jobs, good schools, and safe neighborhoods....

After two full nights of presidential debates on CNN, Democrats still have no answers to the problems plaguing America’s most dangerous cities. They were happy to call President Trump a racist for correctly pointing out that Baltimore is in horrific shape, but they are woefully mute on what to do about it.The Democratic Party’s silence on solutions for the nation’s most suffering cities is ironic given that the latest Democratic debate took place in Detroit, Michigan—according to one study, the second most dangerous city in America. It would have been an appropriate and excellent opportunity for Democrats to speak...

In 1976, Gerald Ford won 15 percent of the black vote. That's the most of any recent Republican presidential candidate. In most elections, blacks give Democrats over 90 percent of their votes. It's not unreasonable to ask what have blacks gained from such unquestioning loyalty to the Democratic Party. After all, the absolute worst public safety conditions and other urban amenities for blacks are in cities that have been controlled by Democrats for decades. Let's look at it. What cities are the deadliest for blacks? The Trace, an independent nonprofit news organization, answers that question. Using 2017 data from the...

New research from the Loyola Marymount University School of Education (SOE) shows that inner-city Los Angeles students attending Catholic schools graduate high school at a much higher rate than their peers in comparable public and charter schools. 100 percent of these students, who came from families living at or below the poverty line, graduated high school. 96 percent were accepted into either two- or four-year colleges. Key factors in achieving not only high academic excellence but also character formation boiled down to school climate, personal relationship and tuition assistance, according to interviews with the tracked students. One alumnus spoke of...

Street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood, we toured St. Louis over a quarter of a century ago, stunned by how many vacant lots and abandoned homes there are. It confirmed what we had researched: by the early 1990s, over 17,000 of these lots in St. Louis alone, and the numbers were growing. It was like cancer throughout the city, lowering surrounding property values and drawing crime like a magnet. Very few new homes were being built, not because there was a lack of demand, but trying to site-build homes on these lots was simply not practical. What you built during...

This past election, then-candidate Donald Trump came to Dundalk, a community that resembles so many towns and neighborhoods in Rust Belt states that have seen their manufacturing jobs base erode. He received a hero's welcome because residents heard him acknowledging what they lived and what they knew: When manufacturing jobs left many other problems arose. His words resonated — and now his actions are giving manufacturers the real change in Washington we've been looking for. Manufacturers in the U.S. are feeling more optimistic about the economy and business environment than we have in 20 years, according to a new National...

President Trump kicked off February by inviting leaders from the black community to the White House to engage in dialogue and hash out solutions. Day one of Black History Month was the perfect time to dive into what he vowed while on the campaign trail: address the needs within communities of color. The “forgotten man and woman” was a recurring Trump theme in the 2016 election. One could make the case that despite the obvious irony, no group was as forgotten during the last eight years as black Americans, many of whom find themselves living in violent Chicago neighborhoods, lacking...

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development-designate, told a story. He said his mother was a domestic who cleaned beautiful homes. One day she asked him if he would rather live in those nice houses or the house in which he and his brother lived in Detroit. She told him that only he could decide the type of home he would eventually live in by how much he studied in school and the choices he made for his life. Thus motivated, Dr. Carson said he went from last in his class to first,...

President-elect Donald Trump responded to backlash over his attack on Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Saturday evening, suggesting the pair work together to focus on the nation's inner cities. “Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!” Trump wrote. *snip* Trump raised the issue of inner cities during the campaign. In August, he compared the nation's inner cities to war zones, declaring during a campaign stop in Ohio, “The Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities." “For those hurting the most, who...

He's a great entertainer, and apparently apolitical. That's what makes his appearance with Donald all the better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apXyM1bDE_0

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Jim Brown, noted NFL great, I told you yesterday he was at Trump Tower with Ray Lewis. Jim Brown came down the elevator after speaking with Trump and just gobsmacked the assembled media. He said, "I love Donald Trump." After meeting with Donald Trump, Jim Brown said, "I love this guy." Jim Brown said, "The three most important men in my life were white." People who gave him his first opportunity, his mentor, and his coach. So he doesn't look at this as a racial thing. What he heard Trump say about wanting to revitalize African-American neighborhoods...

Brown and Lewis praised the president-elect after the meeting at Trump Tower. They said they primarily spoke to Trump about Brown's Amer-I-Can philanthropy, which aims to keep kids away from gang violence. "We couldn't have had a better meeting," Brown said. "The graciousness, the intelligence, the reception we got was fantastic." Former "Apprentice" star Omarosa Manigault and Cleveland Pastor Darrell Scott, two of Trump's most prominent black supporters, sat in on the meeting. Scott told reporters that the president-elect gave a "verbal commitment" to merge Brown's program with the Trump administration. Throughout the campaign's closing stretch, Trump make direct appeals...

As Donald Trump seeks to throw a wrench in the works of how government works... or more often, doesn't, we should be prepared to listen to Democrats and liberals wail at every move.  Just look at the cries that welcomed the nomination of a climate change skeptic to run the borg known as the EPA.  Remember, Trump's the guy who, after NYC wasted $13 million over two years failing to renovate Wollman Rink, went in and accomplished the task in 4 months for $2.25 million... The reality is, Democrats and liberals rarely want government to actually improve things or solve...

I just watched Trump's latest rally in Newton, PA. He mentioned quite a few times tonight the black and hispanic communities and how bad things are for them under Democrat rule. I think it's great he is reaching out to them, but I believe he needs to do more than just mention them in his rallies. He needs to go into the inner cities. I know he went to Detroit back in early September, but he needs to do that again, not only in Detroit, but in Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Cleveland and any other city in a battleground state....