We need to start by figuring out how the Socialists got control of the cities. The New Urban Politics came out 30 years ago and described how conservative constituencies in many areas of the country lost their city politics to a new urban "audience" of liberals, led by political contributors and foundations. It was very common for mayors of cities with very conservative constituencies of e.g. Catholic ethnics, to become heroes of the Left by "growing", and eventually by looking their constituents in the eye and "doing the right thing" in spite of their constituents' wishes. Recent example: Governor Lowell Weicker rammed a personal income tax through the Connecticut legislature, despite popular opposition going back generations, and he was rewarded with a Profile in Courage award presented him by Caroline Kennedy Schlossburg for "exhibiting leadership" and "doing the right thing".
By being the source of substantial discretionary dollars in both political campaigns and city budgets, these groups were able to get urban pols' attention and compete successfully with constituents whose moneys were contributed by taxation, and therefore captive. To the politician of 40 years ago, the next effective dollar came from outside his constituencies, and so those were the interests his policies had to satisfy, in order to keep the moneys coming in.
The local pols appoint the police chiefs, and that accounts for the opinion split between line police officers and chiefs over the RKBA issue. The chiefs have been captured just like the mayors, city managers, and comptrollers were.
"It's all about the money, honey." Therefore, Step One is to make it not about the money, and to get the liberal manipulators to step back and stop interfering.