U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions

The past year’s surge in homicides is not a “blip,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions told attendees at a National District Attorneys Association event in Minneapolis, MN on Monday.

Sessions warned that the murder rate in the U.S. has “surged” in recent years – especially in the nation’s largest cities, like Chicago:

“From the early 1990s until just a few years ago, the crime rate steadily came down across the country. “But violent crime is rising. The murder rate, for example, has surged nearly 11 percent nationwide in just one year — the largest increase since 1968. Per capita homicide rates are up in 27 of our 35 largest cities.” “This past weekend in Chicago, there were 56 people shot . 56. In one, police say a community activist was fatally shot less than a block from the offices of his nonprofit that worked to fight violence in the neighborhood. These tragedies continue to pile up and we must put an end to it.”

Worse yet, the increase in violent crime is a dangerous trend – not a brief, statistical “blip”:

“These numbers are deeply troubling—and especially since they represent a sharp reversal of decades of progress. My best judgment is that this rise is not an aberration or a blip . We must take these developments seriously and consider carefully what can be done about them.” “Yielding to the trend is not an option for America and certainly not to us.”

Sessions laid out a three-pronged approach taken by President Donald Trump to address the problem:

“President Trump understands this. He sent my Department three executive orders. One directs us to be supportive of local law enforcement. A second declared that our mission is to “reduce crime” in America. The third directed us to dismantle transnational criminal organizations. These are our goals and we are getting after them.”

For his part, Sessions said he believes tougher prosecution of, and penalties for, gun crimes is the answer:

“I want to see a substantial increase in gun crime prosecutions. I believe, as we partner together and hammer criminals who carry firearms during crimes or criminals that possess firearms after being convicted of a felony, the effect will be to reduce violent crime .”

“Unfortunately, our jobs are becoming even more difficult ,” Sessions warned, pointing to numerous problems in addition to violent crime – such as the degradation of American cultural values such as “family and discipline”: