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What do you get when there are no consequences for bad behavior? More bad behavior.

Parents of naughty children understand this, but it appears leaders in New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle, WA may not.

Well the Trump administration is going to teach them a lesson. Today the Department of Justice declared these three cities “anarchist jurisdictions.”

In an announcement today, the DoJ said the identification was in response to a presidential memorandum issued September 2, which ordered a review of federal funding to state and local governments that are “permitting anarchy, violence, and destruction in American cities.”

“When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”

Cities so designated could lose federal funding.

Trump’s original memo ordered Attorney General Bill Barr to “publish on the Department of Justice website a list identifying State and local jurisdictions that have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract these criminal activities (anarchist jurisdictions).”

In addition, Trump ordered the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to recommend guidance on restricting funding to the “anarchist jurisdictions,” adding, “My Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones.”

Take THAT.

The criteria for landing on the list include:

– Whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction.
– Whether a jurisdiction has withdrawn law enforcement protection from a geographical area or structure that law enforcement officers are lawfully entitled to access but have been officially prevented from accessing or permitted to access only in exceptional circumstances, except when law enforcement officers are briefly withheld as a tactical decision intended to resolve safely and expeditiously a specific and ongoing unlawful incident posing an imminent threat to the safety of individuals or law enforcement officers.
– Whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.
– Whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the Federal Government.
– Any other related factors the Attorney General deems appropriate.

The announcement then goes on to list the specific reasons NYC, Seattle and Portland found themselves on the s**t list, including weeks of protests, an increase in shootings and budget cuts to law enforcement.

Naturally, critics immediately attacked the decision.

But hey, they’re “mostly peaceful,” right? That’s like saying the voyage of the Titanic was “mostly routine.”

So what do you think? Is this the right thing for Trump and the DoJ to do, to discourage bad behavior?