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Eugene Tetteh, 51, was among the Moore supporters who said in an interview that public safety was a top-of-mind issue, along with education. Mr. Tetteh, who lives in suburban Howard County but does business in Baltimore, said he had been alarmed by how \u201coverwhelmed\u201d the police seemed in the city. Young people, he said, were especially vulnerable on disorderly and dangerous streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be more to it for these kids out there than that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Todd Scott, 59, a voter at Mr. Moore\u2019s rally, said he wanted to see the next governor take a comprehensive approach to battling crime and its underlying causes. An official with the state housing department, Mr. Scott said he admired the departing Republican governor, Larry Hogan, who has crusaded for police funding and clashed with local Democrats who resent what they see as his heavy-handed style.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe No. 1 focus in keeping our city and our state where it needs to be at is crime,\u201d Mr. Scott said.<\/p>\n
He added that fighting crime had to involve more than locking up criminals. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to focus on all the issues that lead our youth to the crime \u2014 which is housing, which is education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Democrats faced a barrage of attacks from Republicans branding them as indifferent to violent crime and tying the party as a whole to a progressive criminal justice agenda that included directing money away from police departments and scaling back prosecution of low-level offenses.<\/p>\n
A report compiled in 2021 by three major Democratic interest groups, including the centrist organization Third Way, concluded that Democrats had spent the last election \u201cstuck on defense\u201d on crime. The party, the report stated, needed to have \u201ca proactive story about necessary systemic changes to policing that would stem the violence and still prioritize and provide public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Biden has highlighted the public safety funding in his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that allocated huge sums of money for state and local services. Last month, the president held an event<\/a> with police chiefs urging cities to spend pandemic-aid money on strengthening law enforcement ahead of an anticipated summer spike in crime. And on Thursday evening, he made a direct appeal<\/a> in a televised address to the nation for Congress to act on gun legislation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n