From Defund To Refund
Two years ago, when the nonsense of defunding police departments nationwide became an aphrodisiac for the liberal progressive, I wrote that the pendulum had swung as far to the left as it could but would one day make its way back to the right. That day has finally arrived, but not without consequence.
In 2020, while cities burned and police stations and courthouses were attacked, Democratic Party politicians looked the other way. Clueless elected officials caved to vocal minority groups like BLM and Antifa who screamed that money be taken away from the police and given to, well, who they weren't exactly sure, but just punish law enforcement by taking away funding. And take it they did, by the millions, without any strategic planning or research, with only a ridiculous notion that social workers could march into any situation previously handled by the police and talk bad guys into peaceful compliance just by being good listeners.
A writer could create that scenario in a novel but nobody would take it seriously because, after all, no society would ever prioritize crime and criminals over public safety would they?
I've written before and will say again that there are an abundance of politicians and liberal mainstream media kneeling at the altar of white guilt, self-flagellating as they chant their oh-so-tired rhetoric regarding sins of the past. Apparently keen on the perception that groveling and apologizing somehow makes them superior human beings, they completely overlook the fact that organizations such as BLM are not operating with altruistic intent. And golly gee and gosh darn if that wasn't proven when a Marxist cofounder of that group used millions of dollars in donations from woke corporations to purchase real estate for herself, and Amazon (yes, woke Amazon) actually suspended the BLM account for noncompliance. Noncompliance in this case means that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been booted from Amazon's charity platform for failing to disclose where tens of millions of dollars in donations have been spent over the last two years.
Crime skyrocketed under the defund agenda, with big cities setting records for homicides, robberies and armed assaults. Politicians, who had taken away money from local police departments, then blamed the departments and their chiefs for their apparent inability to control crime. It was reflective of the mess at the border, where our wonderful commander-in-chief allowed tens of thousands into the country illegally and without being checked for Covid, but blamed Border Patrol for having inadequate facilities to house the problem that Brandon's liberal agenda created in the first place.
In the lustful orgy of defund, where liberals consorted and congratulated themselves for enabling a social pornographic agenda that accomplished nothing more than harming the poor who had to live in the neighborhoods most negatively affected by their actions, someone turned on a light. That light was the reality that, holy cow, we have to run for reelection! Party's over, let's put our clothes on and show the world what decent human beings we really are!
Suddenly there was talk of giving money back to the police. Liberal politicians, self-declared experts on the criminal justice system and its inadequacies, who had unashamedly identified all police as racist and unsuited for the tasks at hand, began advocating for a return to the very system they decried in the first place! Money magically reappeared in the public safety coffers; promises that had been made to vocal minorities, in support of the idea that cities without police departments was a wonderful idea, were broken; common sense received an invitation to return to its seat at the table; liberal pols gushed over their men and women in blue and spoke of how tough their job was and how support for them was of the utmost importance. Heck, we can even stop wearing those silly masks that previously were necessitated by "following the science" (well, political science, but science nonetheless, eh?).
Ah, yes, nothing brings out the best in a politician like a reelection campaign. Where else could they make that kind of money without having to work?
Only one small problem: nobody wants to be a cop any more. Berated, humiliated, degraded, unsupported and shamelessly prosecuted, police officers resigned and retired in droves. People who would normally come forward to voluntarily fill the vacancies in public service began looking at other fields. The thousands who usually applied for the handful of positions available turned away and continue to do so because, after all, who wants to put their lives in the hands of people who cannot be trusted? The job is dangerous enough without having to worry about being stabbed in the back by someone whose priorities in life are driven by polling numbers.