It’s 3 a.m. and you’re home, with your children sleeping in the other room, when a window shatters downstairs. You reach for the phone to dial 911 – but instead of an operator dispatching your local police, you get a recording saying you can leave a voicemail for a social worker.
Or maybe the recording tells you to stop by the police station tomorrow. Or maybe you get no answer at all when you call.
This seems to be the ideal world for those who have bypassed the need for real debate and taken to the streets – not to exercise their right to peacefully protest for positive change, but to demand we “defund,” “abolish,” “disband” or “dismantle” the police.
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER: MOST COPS ARE HEROES – DON’T DEFUND AND DEMONIZE THEM BECAUSE OF MISCONDUCT OF A FEW
Unfortunately for them, everyday Americans have gotten their first taste of this experiment and the lawlessness that has come with it – including rioting, looting, arson, assaults, homicides and more. What we are witnessing is proving why defunding the police is such a terrible idea.
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A little over two weeks ago, a group of demonstrators took over a six-block area of Seattle. As part of their occupation, they declared it a no-cop zone. This is the dream of proponents of defunding the police, who claim community policing can replace the police forces that have protected us for generations. Unfortunately for too many involved, this fairytale did not end happily ever after.
The Seattle Police chief stated that the number of 911 calls related to robberies and assaults from the area now known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) had tripled since the start of the occupation.
In fact, since this past Saturday there have been four shootings in or immediately outside CHOP, including one resulting in the death of a 19-year-old last weekend. When Seattle police attempted to respond to the killing they were met with violence.
This week demonstrators tried to replicate the CHOP model by creating an autonomous zone in our nation’s capital. While conducting an interview in this autonomous zone, the District of Columbia’s Democratic congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was charged by a demonstrator.
Thankfully, a personal security officer Holmes Norton was traveling with responded swiftly. But where does that leave everyday Americans who will have to fend for themselves? Ironically, everyday Americans would have the same reaction Holmes Norton did, which was an audible, “Where are the police when you need them?”
In addition to the madness we’re witnessing on the news all across the country, the statistics don’t lie.
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In my home state of New York, New York City has seen a 79 percent increase in murders, 64 percent increase in shootings and a 34 percent increase in burglaries. Despite this, the New York City Council, in buckling under these radical mobs, has proposed cutting the New York Police Department budget by $1 billion.
Ahead of these cuts, the wheels are already coming off. This past Monday, the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime units, which were focused on fighting violent crimes, were dismantled. And in just the last few days since their elimination, shootings have surged to over double the number that took place in the same week last year.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Council members seem to believe the NYPD only goes after purse-snatchers and teenagers with fireworks. In reality, police officers have thwarted terrorist attacks, mass shootings and violent crimes, and saved countless innocent lives.
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When it comes to keeping all Americans safe, there is more than enough room for substantive, bipartisan and commonsense improvements that can help protect both our police officers and the citizens they serve.
But this message has been hijacked by the radical agenda to defund the police. The American people have had a test drive, and they’re not buying it.
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