DEFUND THE POLICE??? IS THAT THE NEW WOKE RALLYING CRY? DISMANTLE THE POLICE? WOKENESS GONE WILD!
Earlier in the week, I had my kids telling me that everyone on Instagram and Twitter was doing posts calling for the DEFUNDING of the police. Of course, my answer was, “well that’s just freakin stupid! That’ll die down once the “grownups” explain to them how dangerous defunding police would be!” As the days have slowly ticked away, more and more people have jumped on the runaway crazy train and now celebrities and athletes, and other people who think they are more important than the rest of us, are also demanding, in very aggressive terms, that we defund our law enforcement. Tonight, the Minneapolis City Council announced a veto-proof push to dismantle the police department. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, this nightmare called 2020 becomes even more unbelievable.
A quick recap here, because honestly there’s so much drama and so many life threatening problems overwhelming us each and every day, that I’m having trouble keeping up .....We are in the middle of a pandemic. It is apparently (or so we’ve been lied to) so deadly that we have turned to extreme policing and have actually arrested surfers and business owners in order to keep us safe. Our Governor is so worried about the spread of COVID19, that he’s come up with a brilliant strategy to release convicted criminals from prison early so as not to spread the VID amongst the inmates! What? We’ve been living in the #metoo era, where we are understanding that sexual assault is so pervasive that rape os the #2 violent crime in America, and women need extra protection and police are needed to arrest the offenders and prosecute them. We’ve watched hoards of rioting protesters violently loot and burn businesses and property in most of America’s major cities, and even some small ones, and local police were unable to stop them as they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. We are currently facing many more dangerous crimes/situations as a nation that absolutely require police intervention/involvement - you get the picture!
You would think people would realize we need the police now more than ever. The only thing that kept looters out of neighborhoods was the police. How can we defund them? The only thing allowing space for PEACEFUL protests now, the way it should have been from the start, are police efforts to control the situation on the ground and keep it safe for everyone to have a voice. Should we try the social experiment for a day or two and go back to what Democratic mayors and governors were doing in the beginning of this current crisis, and not deploy the police and see what happens? Have people lost their minds?
I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS AMERICA. In San Diego alone, 70,000 guns were purchased during the month of April, this represents a 500% increase from the month before. Can you imagine what that number will be for June and beyond as citizens come to fear whether the police will be there to protect them in the future? Will we be safer without police and with more guns in the hands of our neighbors? I can tell you this much, I’m not waiting around to find out - I’ll be getting trained and licensed next month and will be one of those new gun owners.
I wish everyone could take a step back and think about what our country would look like with no police in our communities. I know I don’t want to live where there is no law and order. I think we need get rid of bad cops, to support any reforms that are necessary to support the black community, everyone should feel safe during interactions with the police regardless of race. But, at the same time we need our law enforcement community to protect us and for them to know we support them. Every day, people we don’t know, go out and put their lives on the line for us. Simple traffic stops can turn deadly - they do it without thinking twice. I know I feel deep gratitude to them and I don’t want to see the protectors of my community defunded or dismantled. That would be wrong.
I hope all of my Facebook friends will take time RIGHT NOW and learn more about police funding, abuse, reform, and groups and organizations working on changing the way we police America. Your voice will be an important part of the dialog going forward.