Christopher Bedford of the Federalist highlights a political problem for the Democratic Party and its approach to law enforcement.

The Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City launched a blitz on his party’s leadership Monday, heading first to the White House and then to a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to bring his pro-law-and-order, anti-Defund-the-Police message to party leadership.

The meetings capped a week of constant fire for the Defund the Police wing of the left — a movement that rose from radical street activists to Congress with the rise of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her band of followers, before blasting into orbit — and policy — after the death of George Floyd.

The past week kicked off with the certified nomination of Eric Adams, who is now the favorite to succeed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. His win follows a 50 percent increase in murders between May 2019 and May 2021. Shootings are up 166 percent; rape, 53 percent. Although some in the New York Police Department have long regarded Eric Adams as a career politician rather than “a cop’s cop,” his campaign focused heavily on law and order and the deadly impact of anti-police activist plans everywhere, and especially in boroughs such as his own.

New York is not alone. “It’s a combustible fire that is getting ready to explode,” Malik Evans said more than 300 miles up the state, in Rochester, where he had defeated the incumbent for the Democrats’ mayoral nomination.

Across the country in Oakland, California, Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong was momentarily silenced by emotion as he pleaded in late June with an obstinate city council for resources to fight a 90 percent spike in murders, 88 percent increase in car-jackings, and a 70 percent rise in shootings. “These are true people,” he said. “These are people who lost their lives in this city.”