Sen. McConnell Blasts Progressives’ Attack on Policing, Rise in Violent Crime Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) condemned progressive Democrats’ call to defund police departments during 2020, saying that the far left’s ranting about defunding the police has become “official Democratic Party dogma” and is contributing to violent crimes across the nation. “From coast to coast, American families are facing an explosion of violent crime on their streets and in their neighborhoods. 2020 saw homicides skyrocket nationwide. The sharpest one-year increase in decades. And 2021 is already shaping up to be even worse…. Crime and delinquency have many causes. In some ways, the pandemic likely contributed,” McConnell said from the Senate floor on Thursday. “But it is impossible to ignore that these terrible trends are coming precisely as so-called ‘progressives’ have decided it’s time to denounce and defund local law enforcement,” said McConnell.