Highland Park police funding up $8 million despite mass shooting and 'defund the police' claims

Conservative pundits suggested this week that liberal policies were to blame for a recent mass shooting in Highland Park, where the police department had an $8 million increase in funding in 2022.

Following the mass shooting that left six people dead, conservative outlets like Newsmax and Fox News blamed the crime on liberal policies.

"This is something we've seen across the major Democratic-run cities in the country, where they want to micromanage their law enforcement," Newsmax pundit Charles Marino opined. "First they tried to defund them. Some of them actually went through with it."

Newsmax pundit Betsy Brantner Smith blamed Democrats' so-called "soft-on-crime policies."

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"Next door to Highland Park, we have a progressive prosecutor, Kim Fox, who will not prosecute, will not keep gun criminals in jail," she said. "Again, we have got to look at the anger. There has been so much anger about the Roe v. Wade decisions and so many politicians, even here in southern Arizona, where I now live, we had an eff the Fourth of July celebration at one of our parks. So much anger and so much tolerance of criminal behavior and of anti-social behavior."

Brantner Smith said the solution was to "elevate our heroes, our American law enforcement officers and take responsibility individually for our own behavior."

According to Highland Park records, the public safety budget increased by nearly $8 million between 2021 and 2022.

In 2021, Highland Park spent $30.96 million on public safety. Funding increased to $38.75 million in 2022.