Category: Law & Order

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‘Defund Police’ Demand Could Have Deadly Consequences

You don’t say……

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Report: Shootings Surge After NYPD Disbands Anti-Crime Unit

Reports indicate that shootings in New York City surged last week following the NYPD’s decision to disband its plainclothes anti-crime unit.

The New York Post reports the unit was disbanded on Monday, June 15, 2020, and the week ended with “28 [shooting] incidents and 38 victims.”

During the same week in 2019 there were only 12 shootings.

An law enforcement source told the Post, “This is what the politicians wanted — no bail, nobody in Rikers, cops not arresting anyone.”

The source added, “All those things equal people walking around on the street with guns, shooting each other.”

During the same week in 2019 there were only 12 shootings.

An law enforcement source told the Post, “This is what the politicians wanted — no bail, nobody in Rikers, cops not arresting anyone.”

The source added, “All those things equal people walking around on the street with guns, shooting each other.”

 US city bans no-knock warrants after woman’s death

The city of Louisville in US state of Kentucky banned “no-knock” warrants Friday after a black woman was killed in her home earlier this year by police, sparking widespread outrage.

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old health care worker, was killed by police in March, shot eight times in her home as police officers and her boyfriend exchanged gunfire while police attempted to carry out a drug sting. The officers requested and were granted a no-knock warrant by a local judge.

The Louisville City Council voted 26-0 to pass what is known as Breonna’s Law on Thursday. It prohibits any local law enforcement from seeking or participating in the execution of a no-knock warrant, which allow officers to enter a premise without prior notification, according to the local WLKY television network.

It further mandates officers wear body cameras while executing a search warrant after the three who fatally shot Taylor did not have them.

Mayor Greg Fischer signed the measure into law on Friday, describing the law as a “victory.”

Rasmussen: Majority Oppose Cutting Local Police Budgets

Only 27 percent of the survey respondents want to reduce police budgets, and 14 percent are undecided, according to Rasmussen.

Sentiments run along party lines, the new report revealed. Republicans are more reluctant than Democrats or Independents to cut police funding, and “those under 40 like the idea a lot more than their elders do.”

Another disturbing revelation of the Rasmussen poll is that 16 percent of Americans think most police officers are racist in the aftermath of Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody May 25. That’s up 10 percent from a year ago, Rasmussen said.

However, 67 percent “still rate the performance of their local police as good or excellent.”

But officials in Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities are joining the anti-police chorus. Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender told CNN, “We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe.”

In Seattle, Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda tweeted, “How many people have to call for the police to be defunded before the Mayor embraces radical change?”

She added, “The problem is–the weapons aren’t illegal, the tactics aren’t illegal, the riot gear isn’t illegal. We have allowed them, we have funded them, and that is why WE need to change.”

The Rasmussen survey found other interesting opinions.

“Even among blacks,” Rasmussen said, “only 27% think there are too many cops, although that compares to 15% of whites and 17% of other minority Americans. Blacks (36%) are more enthusiastic than whites (25%) and other minorities (24%) about defunding the police and channeling that money into more social services.”

The survey was conducted June 7-8 by Rasmussen Reports with a+/- 3 percentage point margin of sampling error and a 95 percent level of confidence.

Another revelation is that 77 percent of adults say crime remains a serious problem in the country today with 38 percent saying it is “very serious.”

What happens if police agencies are “de-funded” or dismantled and rebuilt?

According to CNN, what happened in Camden, N.J. might provide a hint. The story noted, “Before its police reforms, Camden was routinely named one of the most violent cities in the US. Now, seven years after the old department was booted (though around 100 officers were rehired), the city’s crime has dropped by close to half. Officers host outdoor parties for residents and knock on doors to introduce themselves. It’s a radically different Camden than it was even a decade ago.”

But will the Camden model work elsewhere?

In some communities, including Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and the cities of Snohomish and Kirkland in neighboring Washington, citizens tried a different approach to fears of violent protest. They turned out in big numbers, visibly armed. It apparently had a deterrent effect, since there have been no problems in any of those communities.

Perhaps a quote in the Spokane Spokesman-Review summed it up.

“I think there are two types of people,” Coeur d’Alene’s Mike Marquardt said. “The good people who are here to get a message across, and we are here to support and protect them. Then there are those who come to take advantage of the situation and cause trouble. We are here to protect against those.”

Auto Defensas Para Mi! (I called it)

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If You Want To Know What Disbanding The Police Looks Like, Look At Mexico
The rise of vigilante groups in Mexico offers a hint of what happens when institutions fail and civil society collapses. America should be paying attention.

One of the most visible and insistent demands of the Black Lives Matter movement is the abolition or disbandment of the police—or at the very least defunding them, which taken to the extreme would amount to the same thing. “Abolish the police” has become a rallying cry among protesters and a litmus test for elected officials seeking to ally with them.

What comes after the police have been abolished remains unclear. Protesters and politicians alike are hazy on details, preferring instead to talk about “reimagining public safety” and throwing around vague terms like “community policing.”

Of course, in concrete terms what would happen if a city actually disbanded its police department, as the Minneapolis City Council pledged to do over the weekend, is that the county sheriff’s office or the state police—or perhaps even federal law enforcement—would step into the vacuum and the city would have almost no say in how it was policed or what policies county and state law enforcement agencies adopted.

But let’s say these ultra-progressive municipal governments could get their wish and abolish the police in their cities entirely. What would happen? Inevitably, an armed group would emerge and impose a monopoly on the use of force.

If you want an idea of how that works, look to our southern neighbor, Mexico, where over the past decade endemically corrupt police departments in some areas have been supplanted by autodefensas, or local self-defense militias. But before you get too excited about the prospect of paramilitary autodefensas policing American cities, understand that in Mexico these groups are a mixed bag at best—and at worst they’re not much better than the corrupt local police and cartel gunmen they replaced. More importantly, their mere presence in Mexico was and is a disturbing sign of societal decay…………….

Aside from Minneapolis—where on Saturday the mayor, Jacob Frey, was booed and heckled out of a rally after saying he didn’t support “the full abolition” of the police—cities like Los Angeles, Portland, and Toronto are taking steps to reduce funding for law enforcement, in some cases redirecting tens of millions of dollars to various community programs while slashing police budgets.

Make no mistake, “defund the police” doesn’t mean “reform the police.” It means take the money away, which means fewer police on the street—and in the case of Minneapolis, apparently no municipal police on the street.

That local elected officials would even consider such policies is deeply troubling. America might not be a failing state overrun with drug cartels and corrupt politicians, but it is sliding in the direction of Mexico. We have declining levels of confidence in our institutions and declining levels of trust across society in general. The fabric of our civic life is fraying badly, and calls to abolish the police are a sign of that.

Despite the insistence of the protesters, getting rid of law enforcement won’t usher in a more just or equitable order. But it will invite new arrangements for security, as it did in Mexico. These arrangements, however well-intentioned, will fall prey to the same corruption and unaccountability as the forces they replace, especially if the underlying causes of societal decay are left to fester.