The Answer to Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles to Defund the Police is Political: Vote the Radicals Out

Elections have consequences. If the voters of Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle et al continue to elect radical city councils, district attorneys and mayors, they deserve the consequences. The die is cast. Will law-abiding voters vote out the radicals or retain them in office. The law or the mob? Which will it be? Hardly anyone, except for the attorneys who represent the four Minneapolis police officers, can defend or justify Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd. A national consensus quickly arose for police reform, the form of which remained to be decided. Then though the call for (reasonable) reform metamorphized into “Defund the Police.” Black Lives Matter controlled the agenda. Many of the elected Democrats are zealot, woke, social justice warriors who view the military and police as instruments of oppression. They sympathize with the protestors. That doesn’t explain tolerance of rioters, looters, and arsonists. They so hate the police they are willing to imperil public safety. New York Mayor De Blasio, who made clear from his election he loathed the NYPD, avidly cut roughly $1 billion from the NYPD $6 billion budget. The NYPD also eliminated the 600 officer Street Crimes Plainclothes Anti-Crime unit, whose charge was to keep armed felons off the City’s streets. The stated purpose of the disbandment: to build “trust with the community through respect, accountability, and transparency.” Good luck with that! Appeasement does not work. The Minneapolis City Council over the objections of the equally radical but incompetent and shell socked Mayor Frey wants to totally remove the Minneapolis Police in 5 years. They’ll start with 50% as a down payment. The Seattle City Council over the objections of the equally radical but incompetent Mayor Durkin wants to cut the Seattle Police by 50%. For now! More to follow. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti led the Los Angeles City Council in slashing the LAPD budget by $150 million, cutting its ranks back to 2008 levels. LA is both a city and county. The LA Sheriff Office patrols unincorporated areas of the county as well as cities which do not have their own police. The County Board cut the Sheriff’s budget by $400 million earlier in this year and then by another $162 million on Monday, June 29. The county’s suggestions were to abolish or shrink the Special Victims Unit (children, rape and human trafficking), Operation Safe Streets (gang control), Major Crimes Bureau, and Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau, as well as the Mental Evaluation Team. Supervisor Kathryn Barger averred: “I would like to take a moment to reiterate my commitment to public safety.” George Orwell is looking down: “I told you so.” In addition the LA Unified School District Board cut the LA School Police by 35%, $25 million, with 65 officers being laid off. The only good news this year is if the students do not return to live classes, the need will reduce. The chair of the Philadelphia Black Lives Matter wants total elimination of the Philadelphia Police Department within 5 years to be replaced by some sort of community based security, she doesn’t know. She asserts the community is better without police. How has that worked in Seattle’s CHAZ?CHOP Zone, Atlanta’s Rayshard Brooks’ site, and the shooting galleries of Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia? How about the 49 days and nights of riots in Portland? The public should decide the future of law enforcement. They will have the opportunity in Minneapolis. Eliminating the Minneapolis Police Department will require a charter change by the voters. The proposed change is currently before the Charter Commission. If they approve it, then it goes to the voters. My prediction is that law and order will prevail, and a revamped police force remain. I suspect even many residents of the inner city, who live under the police boot, will want to retain the police. No matter how much they may abhor the MPD, they have to live with the increasing crime, including drug dealing, gangs, shootings and killings, in their neighborhood in the absence of police. I do not believe mothers and fathers want their young children senselessly gunned down: Vernando Jones, Jr., Royta DeMarco, Secoriea Turner, Natalie Wallace, Jace Young, Davonte Bryant, Devall Gardner; the ever rising death toll. If the voters decide to oust the police, they will live will the consequences. However, a vote to retain the police will not stop the bleeding. City councils control the budget. Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle make it clear they will continue to bleed, defang and demoralize the police, imperiling the safety of their residents. The solution is to vote the radicals out of office. That too is not totally possible since many cities today elect their boards by district. Seattle has seven district and two at-large seats. The Kshama Savants may continue to be reelected. Yet, voters must do what they can in these often low-turnout elections. Make it a large turnout by the people.