HERE WE GO AGAIN: The Never Ending War On Cops
/By David A. Clarke Jr., Sheriff (Ret.) Milwaukee County
Anybody who thought that the War on Cops was coming to an end because there has not been a constant
anti-police drumbeat should think again. The defund and even abolish police movement started in earnest
after the death of George Floyd. Yeah, he’s the guy who did time in prison previously for an armed home invasion burglary where he held a loaded firearm to the stomach of a pregnant woman threatening to shoot her. The same George Floyd who was geeked up on fatal levels of fentanyl while resisting police orders to take him into custody for passing a counterfeit bill. Now do you remember George Floyd?
Ever since his death in custody, there has been a movement afoot to take money from public safety budgets and divert it to some inane idea of replacing cops with social workers to take on crime. This movement caught fire and began sweeping into the nation’s more populated urban cities with some success. The New York Police Department, Los Angeles and Milwaukee Police Departments all saw millions of dollars slashed from their crime-fighting efforts, leading to staff shortages. Violent street crime exploded exponentially to levels not seen in 30 years. This caused politicians who were championing the defund the police slogan to reverse course in fear for their political careers and they walked back the stupidity because it was hurting them politically, unlike in the earlier calls for defund efforts by the creeps of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other Progressives. The effort did not go away, it went underground and is now being waged in stealth-like fashion. Here is an example.
In Minneapolis, a ballot initiative is being put up for voters who will get to decide whether to add an amendment to the city charter that would, “limit the size, scope and influence of its police department.” This at a time of rising violence rates in Minneapolis. It’s called the Yes 4 Minneapolis initiative, “where the city’s police department would be replaced with a Department of Public Safety, abolishing the city’s currently required minimum number of officers per capita and replacing some with social workers, mental health experts and crisis managers effectively defunding the local police by reallocating funds to other city services.” One guy running for Minneapolis city council heralded the move and hoped it would pass and impact what other cities do. Let’s hope not. This is moronic. Here is why.
Minneapolis has become a dangerous place to live as have many other large urban centers. Murders, non-fatal gunshot victims, and carjackings have all seen a significant increase in both 2020 and 2021. Crime victimization has residents living in fear. That is a quality-of-life issue. Then there is the issue of unsolved crime. In Minneapolis, the unsolved crime rate has soared to 88% resulting in no arrest. That is a staggering figure. This emboldens the criminal to know that they have a great chance of never being caught and held accountable for committing a crime of violence. This constant barrage of attacks on the policing profession is leading to de-policing. In Minneapolis, traffic stops are down 85%, field interview or Terry Stops are down 76% and business checks are down 76%. It’s called visibility. These are the type of police tactics that keep crime in check. Traffic stops in high-crime areas find vehicles containing guns and illegal drugs and people wanted on serious felony warrants. The same can be said of suspicious behavior stops in high-crime areas. When the public sees that police are not being aggressive, it leaves them with little confidence that the city can keep them, their children and their neighborhoods safe. People then withdraw from civil life. This leaves the streets to be controlled by the criminal. It leads to law-abiding citizens not wanting to fulfill their role of community guardians who cooperate with and help. police control and solve crime.
There is a way forward, however, and it won’t involve re-inventing the wheel. In 1994, Congress passed a crime bill that led to historic lows in violent crime all across America. The bill was co-authored by none other than Sen. Joe Biden and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It was at a time that even Democrats were not afraid to communicate publicly their support for the police. That doesn’t exist today. It was at a time when these same Democrat politicians trusted police to use their discretion when enforcing the law. Now they are trying to take certain tools and tactics away thereby preventing them from performing their most important function and that is crime prevention and keeping the peace.
It is time to go back to the 1994 crime bill and apply what was done back then such as hiring more police, re-investing in police budgets, getting rid of stupid policies like no bail and locking up career criminals. It is time to stop the revolving door of the criminal justice system. Jails and prisons are an effective crime control tool. They keep repeat offenders from, you guessed it, re-offending. It’s going to take a prosecutor’s office that takes off their political activist hat and puts their concern for the victims of crime hat back on. and begins again to represent law abiding residents instead of acting like de facto defense attorneys. When judges get back to punishing crime instead of sympathizing with career violent offenders, then the criminal justice system will cease being dysfunctional and become the institution that it was designed to be, that being a purveyor of the rule of law, law and order and justice for all.
