With the nation locked-in on the Oregon massacre last week, violence is once again a hot topic of conversation.

There is no question the USA is a violent country.  Our freedom allows bad people to create criminal enterprises and also allows madmen opportunities to commit atrocious crimes.

Tough, smart policing and strict mandatory sentencing drove violent crime down in America after the drug-fueled crack carnage of the 1990s, which made cities like New York and Los Angeles exceedingly dangerous places.

Mayors like Rudy Giuliani and police commissioners like Bill Bratton put together anti-crime strategies that worked.

They were based on aggressive community policing and controversial tactics like stop-and-frisk.

Because many drug criminals worked the minority neighborhoods in big cities, prisons became filled with people of color, prompting the left to label the anti-crime initiatives as racist.

Under President Bush the younger, those accusations got nowhere.

Under President Obama, they have been taken very seriously.

Mr. Obama and his first Attorney General Eric Holder believe there is a strong racial element in the American criminal justice system.  They ignore the fact that drug dealers have devastated poor neighborhoods and enslaved millions of minority Americans over the years.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Holder also believe that selling drugs like crack, heroin and meth is not a violent crime.

Never mind that folks addicted to those drugs commit the majority of property crimes in America as well as the majority of child abuse.

Never mind that drug overdoses kill thousands of Americans every year.

Never mind that drug gangs in places like Chicago and Miami are responsible for an incredible amount of violence, as you need guns to compete in the street drug trade.

So now, just in time for Halloween, the Justice Department is set to release six thousand inmates from penitentiaries all across the nation - many of them dope dealers.

Also, Congress is getting ready to change some mandatory sentencing, making it easier for pushers and other so-called non-violent criminals to avoid paying the penalty they deserve.

All of this liberal compassion for criminals is having an effect.  Violent crime is rising quickly in many places, as more lenient sentencing and anti-police rhetoric is kicking in.

The murder rate from 2014 to 15 is very instructive.

In Washington, D.C. it's up 46 percent.

In Milwaukee, up 68 percent.

In St. Louis, near Ferguson, up 51 percent.

In Baltimore, up 54 percent.

In Denver, up 75 percent.

In Austin, Texas the murder rate is up a whopping 83 percent.

Those are facts.  But President Obama and the left have not acknowledged them.

After the mass prison release this month, expect violent crime to rise even more.

The drug trade is violent on its face and everybody knows it.

The myth that peddling hard drugs is a non-violent act is dangerous and irresponsible.

And many of our leaders simply don't care.

That's the memo.