War against cops could leave us unprotected
The war against police misconduct by a relatively few bad apples has become a war on police departments in general across the country.
Specifically, while trying to defend our communities against riots and looting, 11 cops have been murdered, and more than 500 have suffered injuries, some of which are life-threatening.
Furthermore, in the midst of this carnage, radical activists are now demanding, and reckless politicians are conceding, to defund, dismantle and disarm our police departments. If they succeed, who then will protect us?
Black Lives Matter has decided to form an armed militia to patrol neighborhoods. Specifically, Hawk Newsome, a nationally recognized leader of BLM, asserts his organization, and others like it (Antifa?), are justified in using destruction to further their goals, including by way of bullets and blood!
I, for one, am very concerned to know how cities who have dismantled their police force will deal with gang violence in inner cities, or do they assume the violence will disappear once the cops are gone, since they are blaming virtually everything on cops and racism? And, what about the million-plus annual national incidences involving rape, robbery, sex trafficking, domestic violence, drunk driving and other violent crimes?
Believe it or not, the plan is to replace cops with social workers and counselors. This is what local jurisdictions, such as the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta, mean when they declared racism as a public health emergency. In other words, they intend to send a counselor to the scene of a crime.
Nonetheless, Los Angeles recently suffered 989 gang-related shootings in just one year. Chicago just broke a record — its bloodiest day in 60 years. Eighteen people were murdered within 24 hours.
Closer to home, our District Attorney Joyce Dudley is in the middle of prosecuting the largest gang trial in California’s history, based upon a murderous crime spree by members of MS-13 (Operation Matador) who were operating in Santa Maria. These international thugs were suspected of 10 homicides, 14 attempted murders and many other violent crimes that occurred in Santa Maria over a three-year period. The defendants were facing 50 felony counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and criminal street gang activity.
Does anyone really believe these career criminals and gang members, including the 40,000 gang members in Los Angeles County, are likely candidates to diversion from criminal activity by way of counseling?
Then we have Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She is leading her fellow Democrats in Congress to eliminate prisons, ostensibly because prisons are a function of institutionalized racism. She also advocates for open borders and eliminating the border patrol, which would be a delight to the members of MS13, not to mention Mexico’s drug cartels and Islamic terrorists.
This war against our criminal justice system is nothing new.
For years, we have been countenancing demands that include abolishing prisons, eliminating bail, paying people to not commit crimes, banning police from college and high school campuses, and forcing cops to stand down during riots and looting, lest they be threatened with prosecution, despite the fact none of these things will help anyone, least of all the residents of crime-ridden cities in America.
How dangerous and irresponsible is all this? Has the threat of school violence been eliminated by protest rallies? Have we already forgotten Columbine and Sandy Hook? Has the threat of domestic or international terrorism disappeared? Have we already forgotten the Boston Marathon massacre?
I am completely opposed to defunding, dismantling and disarming our police departments because that is not going to benefit anyone, except criminals! How about you?