The Left Wanted To Destroy The Police, And So Far They’ve Succeeded – The Federalist

For the past year-and-a-half, police reform has been at the center of public debate. After President Joe Biden and leftist Democrats took power, the radicals reintroduced their legislation to reimagine policing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

We were told that it was of momentous importance, yet three weeks ago, when it was announced that Senate negotiations had failed and the bill was finished, the overall reaction from the left was general indifference. Ruling class media expressed perfunctory outrage for a day or two, and then the issue disappeared. Why?

Lets take a moment to consider how we got here.The real purpose of Democrats Black Lives Matter-inspired legislation was to destroy policing, not to improve it, as I observed last May. The bill was poison. It was built upon the big lie that American policing is systemically racist.

We saw almost a year of Black Lives Matter and Antifa mob violence with 574 riots; $2 billion in destruction, arson, and looting; at least 25 dead; and more than 2,000 police officers injured. To re-enforce this spirit of lawlessness, leftist prosecutors dismissed most charges against rioters and looters in Portland, New York City, and across the country.

While every aspect of the Democrat bill was designed to undermine law enforcement, two provisions would have directly dismantled the police and resulted in thousands more black people being killed.First, the bill would have stripped the protection of qualified immunity for individual officers, causing more officers to leave the job or retreat from fighting crime. Second, in deference to tenets of critical race theory, the bill would have made it law that any group-identity statistical disparities in investigation or enforcement results would constitute prima facie proof of racial profiling.

Law-abiding minority citizens want the police in their communities. Eighty-one percent of black Americans want to keep or increase the number of police officers in their neighborhoods. But this bill would have prevented police from proactively policing high-crime black communities. A leftist, race-based enforcement quota system would have permanently diverted vital police resources away from high violent-crime neighborhoods.

So why was the radical left so quiet when its legislative plan to destroy policing failed? Because their mission has already been almost completely accomplished. In virtually every major Democrat-run city and beyond, policing as we know it has been undermined beyond recognition perhaps beyond repair.

The numbers speak for themselves. Americas crime epidemic saw a 30 percent homicide surge in 2020, the biggest ever. Almost 10,000 homicide victims were black 53 percent of all victims, despite blacks constituting only 13 percent of the U.S. population.

The Black Lives Matter Marxists program of defunding, demonizing, and dismantling the police has emboldened criminals and caused police to pull back. The war on cops has also escalated. Already this year, 241 officers have been shot, 44 killed by gunfire, and ambush attacks have increased 103 percent.

Black Lives Matter, Democrats, the ruling class media, and rogue prosecutors have broken the police. Perpetuating the myth of systemic police racism has justified eliminating cash bail, ending qualified immunity, and enacting laws that practically legalize theft. In Democrat-run cities, proactive policing is dead. Officer morale is at rock bottom and many of the most qualified veterans are bailing out. Last year across the country, retirements increased by 45 percent and resignations by 18 percent.

Finally, the radical left has insidiously and effectively undermined our law and civil order through an organized takeover of states attorneys offices by radicals. Funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, these rogue prosecutors subvert the system from within dismissing thousands of felony cases, failing to charge violent criminals, and arbitrarily refusing to prosecute quality-of-life crimes, such as public urination or prostitution.

In this way, no matter how effective local police are at arresting criminals, their efforts are sabotaged. Massive spikes in violence are directly connected to pro-criminal Soros prosecutors in Chicago, Baltimore, Austin, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other Democrat-run jurisdictions.

Last years BLM/Antifa armed rioting and todays out-of-control violent crime demonstrate that when the mob and street criminals run wild and police pull back, American civilization disintegrates. This is the ultimate objective of the leftist elites.

Faced with such a vast array of anti-police power, what can we do? Two options remain. In Democrat-run cities, residents and neighbors must organize, speak out, and take grassroots political action outside the Democratic Party machine. In Republican states, citizens and elected leaders must enact unabashedly pro-police laws and policies everything the Democrats are not.

Unfortunately, in most Democrat-run cities with leftist mayors and city councils, subversive prosecutors, and increasingly more woke police chiefs, things will get a lot worse before they get better. Violent crime is intensifying and spreading, but average citizens are beginning to fight back.

Austin, Texas, is ruled by a leftist Democrat mayor and city council who enacted one of the most radical defund the police efforts in the country $150 million, one-third of the police budget, was cut. The result has been a public safety disaster. Homicides in the city have increased 44 percent over last year and 200 percent compared to five years ago. During the past year, police retirements increased 65 percent and resignations 63 percent. Undermanned, the Austin Police Department no longer responds to citizens 911 calls for eight categories of crimes and disturbances.

But Austin residents have stood up, putting an initiative on the November 2 ballot to hire more police officers and increase officer training. However, the arrogance and extent to which leftist elites will go to demolish the police knows no bounds. Soros, who funded the radical Travis County district attorney, has also sunk $500,000 into a campaign to defeat Austin citizens public safety initiative.

Fighting for the police and preserving the rule of law in every Republican state is crucial. In this fight, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is leading the way.

Of all Americas governors, DeSantis has been the most outspoken in his support for police and the rule of law, proclaiming, Make no mistake: the reason that you have such huge spikes in crime in many parts of the country is because of not standing up for law enforcement, having weak policies where youre letting people out, and youre not prosecuting people who are committing habitual offenses. That is clearly causing disastrous consequences.

Under DeSantis, Florida enacted the Anti-Riot Bill, increasing penalties for crimes committed during violent assemblies and protecting law enforcement officers and law-abiding citizens. The Florida law also makes it more difficult for municipalities to defund the police.

The leftist elites, whether in the form of Black Lives Matter Marxists, Antifa anarchists, socialist Democrats, subversive district attorneys, or critical race theory race hustlers, know that American civilization cannot survive without law, order, and public safety. This is the reason they are destroying the police. And this is the reason that the American people must stop them.

Maurice Richards is the former chief of the Martinsburg Police Department in West Virginia. He served as chief from 2015 to 2020 after 24 years as an officer and lieutenant in the Chicago Police Department. Richards holds a doctorate in adult education from Northern Illinois University.

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The Left Wanted To Destroy The Police, And So Far They've Succeeded - The Federalist