President Donald Trump loves to present himself as tough-on-crime leader.
From saying he would “restore law and order” during his 2016 speech at the Republican National Convention to partially shutting down the government for 35 days in a failed attempt to get funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that would supposedly protect the country from cartels and smugglers, Trump has consistently boasted of his willingness to help law enforcement crack down on crime — manufactured or otherwise.
But there is a growing law enforcement crisis in the United States which the Trump administration has failed to address. In the first 10 days of 2019, the island of Puerto Rico experienced two dozen homicides, including one brazen, broad-daylight shootout on Sunday, January 6 in the area of Isla Verde, which resulted in one death and one injury. Automatic weapon fire can be heard in a video recording of the incident.
The spate of shootings led the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of Puerto Rico to declare that the island was facing a “security crisis.”
“When a citizen cannot walk the neighborhood without fearing a bullet, there is a security crisis,” Douglas Left told El Nuevo Dia. “Nobody doubts that there is a crisis when you describe these situations.”
The FBI’s official data backs up Left’s claims: according to the agency’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Puerto Rico experienced a homicide rate of 20.3 per 100,000 in 2017, higher than any U.S. state or the District of Columbia. According to Left, that figure puts it on par with the crime rate in countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as the Chicago urban area — all places the Trump administration has described as extremely dangerous.
The crisis is personal for Maria Beri, a Puerto Rican activist with New York City Communities for Change, whose nephew was among the homicide victims in 2017.
According to Beri, her nephew, along with his wife, were standing outside a bar in the region of Naranjito in December that year and were preparing to head home when a car with tinted windows pulled up outside and started shooting. Beri’s nephew, his wife, and their friend were all killed in the shooting, which police said was gang-related.
“They were so beautiful, they just wanted to have a normal life,” Beri told ThinkProgress. “After the hurricane there was no place to go, nothing to do. The town where they went to [have drinks], it was a safe community.”
Beri’s family has faced other struggles in the wake of the growing security crisis SAC Left highlighted this month.
According to the Centro de Periodismo Investigatio, Puerto Rico has lost nearly 4,000 out of its 17,000 officers in the last five years. Of those who remain, many have grown increasingly unhappy about their low salaries.
That exodus has contributed to the already tenuous situation facing the island’s residents in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which caused around $90 billion in damages and left much of the island without power for months.
Beri’s niece has been dealing with harassment and stalking from a former partner since November last year. She currently has an active restraining order against them, but it has done little to stop the problem.
Beri attributes this in part to the drop in staffing and police morale, which she says creates an atmosphere ripe for corruption.
“In Puerto Rico, what goes on is that, if you know someone, you’re going to get favors,” she said. “The police are corrupt, the pick a side. They’re their own gang and there’s few police now, and that’s probably one of the biggest concerns. It’s law of the jungle.”
Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown, which ended on Friday last week, has meant federal agencies tasked with solving Puerto Rico’s security crisis have been left in stasis for nearly a month, with few resources to do their jobs.
As the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) noted in its “Voices from the Field” report, federal employees now scrambling to catch up on active cases were stranded without critical tools or finances following the December 21 shutdown, which began after Republicans and Democrats were unable to reach an agreement on funding for Trump’s proposed border wall. The shutdown lasted for nearly 36 days before the president finally caved, agreeing to reopen the government through February 15.
“The failure to fund the FBI undermines essential FBI operations, such as those designated to combat crimes against children, drug and gang crime, and terrorism,” FBIAA president Tom O’Connor said on January 22.
Separately, he added, “For the FBI, financial security IS national security.”
Despite the FBIAA’s pleas and a letter signed by five former Homeland Security secretaries — including Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly — calling the shutdown “unconscionable,” Trump spent a month refusing to consider any option to end the shutdown that did not include at least $5.7 billion in border wall funding.
The final twist of the knife came on January 11, when an Associated Press report revealed the president was considering siphoning off $2.5 billion in funding for Puerto Rico’s recovery to fund the wall. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security called the idea an “obscenity.”
“These funds were intended by Congress to be used for real emergencies and to help millions recover from hurricanes and other disasters,” Thompson said. “Under no circumstance are these funds to be used to fund the President[‘s] pet project so he can claim a win.”
From a distance, it’s hard not to appreciate the profound irony of the situation, Beri said.
“Why are we having to build a useless border wall when there’s so much need on your own land?” she said. “Those billions [you want to spent on the wall] why don’t you spend it on your island? A couple of paper towels did nothing.”