As predicted … there is a SHARP rise in major crimes in our big cities. We see some reporting on the growing problem – more in the conservative media and less in the progressive media.
Once the defund-the-police movement became a rallying point for the radical left – and an unofficial plank in the Democratic Party platform – those of us on the right – and in the right – predicted that crime would notch up across the country – and especially where the defunding idiocy was put into practice. And so it has come to pass.
Commensurate with the rise in crime is a lack of effective police enforcement – for two reasons. There is a major concern that an exceedingly high number of current police officers are retiring or quitting. In addition, they are much more reluctant to get involved in life and death situations.
Both those problems have the same cause. Policing has become a very dangerous profession. Police are being targeted and killed – assassinated – in increasing numbers. When there is a controversial shooting – and even one that should not be controversial – the anti-police activists go into action to defame the police involved, mobilize anti-police sentiment, drag them into criminal and civil courts – and slander the entire profession.
We have seen police endure unprovoked assaults on the streets of New York with water or worse. They are restrained from taking any action by policies that make such counteractions dangerous to their career. We have repeatedly seen a phalanx of police standing down as mobs attack them with bricks, bottles, fireworks, soup cans, urine and even Molotov cocktails. They are not even allowed to protect the good people of the neighborhoods and business owners from the arsonists and looters.
I am sure by now police officers throughout America understand that if they use their gun against a minority for any reason, they could become the focus of anti-police unrest throughout the nation, endure a prolonged suspension and potentially dragged to court from criminal indictments and civil suits. They are increasingly more likely to let the suspect escape – to commit other crimes.
If out of a sense of self-preservation, the police are reducing their efforts to apprehend, disable or even kill dangerous criminals, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen. More crime.
It is a double hit on public safety. We get fewer police and less proactive police.
On the extreme edge of the police defunding movement are those who want to totally disband policing in favor of some idiotic proposal to have crime handled exclusively by a social welfare agency with badges. A modified version of that is to have social workers handling violent and potentially violent situations involving someone with mental problems.
Under such a program, you might imagine a call to 911 would go something like this.
Dispatcher: Hello
Woman (screaming): Help! My husband has a gun threatening to kill me and the children.
Dispatcher: Why is he doing that?
Woman: I don’t know. He’s crazy.
Dispatcher: Oh, in that case I will have to refer our clinical intervention division and they will send out a social worker as soon as one is available.
Yes, that may sound extreme but that is the direction in which we are heading.
There are two issues to consider when evaluating policing – the problem of rogue cops and the presence of systemic racism. Ironically, they have the same source – the political structure that governs over the city and therefore the police departments.
The only way rogue cops and systemic racism can exist in a police force is with to the acquiescence of those at the top. And I do not mean the police chief. He or she is just another cop reflecting the policies of city hall. It is not accidental that the most obvious examples of systemic racism in policing occurs in cities in which there is a longstanding one-party racist administration.
If you want to know which communities have that problem, just check out which communities where the victims of police racism are most oppressed and frustrated. The cities in which most of the controversial police shootings take place. Where the most racial unrest, demonstrations and riots occur.
The reduction in policing – and the concomitant increase in violent crime – is hitting hardest in the very minority communities, the leaders of which are demanding the restriction of traditional, crime-fighting policing. Contrary to the blabber of the anti-police activists, many of the folks in the ‘hood’ are demanding more police protection.
And why not? The vast majority of murder victims in Chicago – as only one example – are Blacks and Hispanics. Just this past weekend, 54 people were shot – and 12 died. The last thing the folks in the high-crime neighborhoods need is less police presence and response.
When there is a rogue cop, that should be handled on an individual basis by an unbiased political leadership. When there is systemic racism involved in policing, it needs to be addressed by changing the politicians running the system from city hall.
But to expand those two problems to a broad-brush smear on all police is not only wrong but will make every person less safe – especially those trapped in the segregated communities of our major cities. We need to let the police do their job to serve and protect.
So, there ‘tis.
