BUCK: We want to dive into this now for a second because the numbers are in. We can see it. You know it; you feel it all across the country. And while, on the one hand, you have Democrats acting like anybody taking up arms in defense of themselves or a community under siege is horrible… The vigilantes! How dare anyone think that when the state refuses to defend them, they should defend themselves?

On the other hand, you look at what’s going on in cities across the country, notably New York, but not just New York. I’m here in New York City; so it’s always on my mind ’cause crime is a local issue, right? Crime is something that you feel in your own neighborhood. There has been a move away from supporting law enforcement, a decision to coddle criminals, district attorneys refusing to push for more severe sentences for violent and repeat offenders.

And we’re all seeing the consequences of this playing out right now in New York. Just to give you a sense of it — ’cause I was curious — we have a robust and very appreciated audience, for example, in Houston, Houston, Texas. I pulled the numbers on this one, Clay. This was as of last month there were 346 murders in Houston, which was a 28% increase over last year and a 74% increase over 2019.

So, 2020, a 74% increase, and then this past year, a 28% increase even over that. Massive increase in homicides. This is happening in places all across the country. Los Angeles. For our KEIB listeners out there, Los Angeles, Clay, is putting out now the LAPD warnings to people about a new crime trend of follow-home robberies. People being targeted — usually because they have expensive jewelry — are followed to their home.

Obviously, a lot of them don’t live in apartment buildings are gonna be at a doorway or something, and there’s no one around and being robbed right there, right on their own doorstep. And the LAPD is saying, “Well, don’t resist. Comply.” Okay. Maybe if people could conceal carry, they’d feel a little bit differently. The bad guys would feel differently about following you home into your driveway and trying to steal your watch and your wallet and your phone, right?

We’re seeing this play out. People are starting to wake up who aren’t just on the right — people who are independents, people who are rational Democrats — and this is where you gotta understand, BLM is a massive failure for the country when it comes to crime. The Democrat policies, the Soros-backed prosecutors, they’ve made everything worse. Here is New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams responding to that BLM cofounder, Hawk Newsome, earlier in the week who said there would be blood in the streets.

Here’s what — the new mayor, soon-to-be mayor — says.

ADAMS: That’s silly, and I think New Yorkers should not allow rhetoric like that. This city is not going to be a city of riots. It’s not going to be a city of burning. If fringe elements want to hurl rhetoric like that, that’s silly to New Yorkers. This city is ready to move forward. When I ran to become the mayor of the City of New York, I said I was going to reinstitute an anti-gun unit in plainclothes. Voters voted on that.

BUCK: Clay, we back the cops, we enforce the law, we take back our streets. Pretty simple. It’s like one of the Batman movies we’re dealing with here.

CLAY: Good for him for standing up to BLM — and, by the way, how come more Democratic politicians aren’t doing that? If the media was doing its job, Buck, every single New York politician would be directly asked — Chuck Schumer, AOC, all of them — “Black Lives Matter New York has threatened that if plainclothes police officers are brought back to the service in New York City, that they are going to make sure that the city burns and that there are mass riots.

“What is your position on that direct statement made by Black Lives Matter? Do you support their rioting if plainclothes police are put back into the streets?” That’s a question that every single politician in the state of New York should be asked, and I give credit to Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York City, for addressing it directly and saying basically, “That’s not gonna happen and I’m reflecting the will of the voters.”

This is why elections matter, right? He said, “I’m going to bring back plainclothes police.” He knows, as a former member of the New York police, the impact. Buck, you know. You can talk to it directly because of your past experience. You know how important those guys are to limiting the overall rate of crime, and so this is where you should have to answer.

How often do we hear, Buck…? Just think about it. Every time anybody who is in the wing-nut battalion of the Republican Party says something crazy, every Republican leader would get asked about it within five minutes. Every single time, right? I don’t even remember the guy in Iowa who lost his seat, had a lot of borderline racist things that he said.

Every time that he said it, every Republican would get asked about it. How come the media doesn’t hold Democrats accountable for what the leadership of Black Lives Matter says, particularly in New York? That’s the job of the media, and Eric Adams answered that question and answered it well. But I want to hear what AOC has to say. She’s been in favor of defunding the police. Is she in favor of riots of plainclothes police come back? She should have to answer.

BUCK: There are some political disputes that can feel very theoretical to people when we’re talking about, for example, a foreign policy issue. Right now, Russia has some military exercise going on the border of Ukraine. People are concerned. Okay. But unless you’re active-duty military or your family members are and you’re worried about the U.S. getting directly involved in some way, that can feel very theoretical to people, what’s going on in Russia, Ukraine.

People following you home and putting a gun to your head or pulling a knife out, putting it to your throat — who have been already, in many cases, arrested dozens, perhaps over a hundred times and who prosecutors have decided, “Oh, for social justice reasons we don’t want to punish them.”

CLAY: The Wisconsin guys who got shot. Like the guys who got shot in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

BUCK: Oh, yeah, of course.

CLAY: They had long rap sheets.

BUCK: Multiple child rapes. Raped children. He raped underage people. Yeah. But when you’re chased home and you’re robbed, it all this feels very real to you. And so when you have a prosecutor who’s saying, well, because of the history of systemic racism in this country and law enforcement and — no. You actually just want to not be attacked by anybody.

Nobody wanted to be attacked by any criminal element at their home anywhere in their city or their town across the country. This is becoming real to people. They’re seeing it, they feel it, and they know that things are worse because of a narrative that the Democrat Party adopted to try to help get out the vote in an election yearly to undermine Donald Trump in 2020, the BLM riots. They were supportive of this.

Cities were in upheaval, and the Democrat media was acting like the good people were the ones who were trying to tear down buildings, light them on fire, and attack people in the streets who were standing in their way. There are consequences to this. Why are some so much more lawful than others, right? Just or example, you go south of our border, Clay.

I remember speaking to the U.S. ambassador to Mexico about this a few years ago, and he said that there’s about a 95% chance that a criminal in Mexico will not be prosecuted. About 95% chance! Why? Why is that? It’s just the way that society functions. The perception of the citizenry, the ability of the cops and the prosecutors, it’s all based on ideas.

We have been pushed by the radical socialist left in this country — under the Democrats, under their leadership — to abandon core issues of law enforcement and law and order. And we now suffer the consequences, we have for a long time, and just the numbers I read about Houston, right? Our audience at KTRH, they know. It’s outrageous what’s going on. It’s true in New York. It’s true across the country. It has to stop, Clay. Now we have to tell Democrats, “You guys were wrong. Now let’s get on the same page and enforce the law.”

CLAY: Chesa Boudin in San Francisco — where things have really got out of control — Buck, is the subject of a recall, may end up losing his power there to make any decisions before all is said and done.