Get Ready For Higher Crime Rates

There are few policies enacted at the Federal level that average Americans feel the immediate effects of. Certainly some things like tax rate hikes and cuts are felt by John Q. Public almost immediately – or at least by next April. Obamacare was another example, where much of America saw their health insurance premiums double and triple while their choices dwindled away. But can you, the average citizen, explain with certainty, off the top of your head, how NAFTA affected you directly? Or, how about the Paris Climate Accord? Without looking it up, can you personally point to three specific provisions of the Paris Climate Accord that you feel directly impacted your life? Most likely not.

Things that happen at the local level impact our lives so much more directly – and yet we are all busy worrying about who is sitting in the White House. Local property taxes, local spending on pet projects, local schools and what they are teaching your kids, local roads and infrastructure…

and COPS.

Here is a story regarding something that is going to affect YOU on a local level. It’s a story from the Washington Free Beacon that you likely will not hear on CNN, NBC, and ABC – and Google probably has this story “algorythmed” down to somewhere on the 25th page of its search results: THE NUMBER OF COPS PER AMERICAN HAS DROPPED TO ITS LOWEST POINT IN 25 YEAR

The graph in the middle of the story shows an interesting trend:

When did this most recent decline in police numbers begin? That would be 2008, when we elected a President who injected himself into local police matters. Remember when the President of the United States said on national TV that the Cambridge Police acted “stupidly?” How about when the same president told us that if he had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon Martin (who was shot and killed because he was pounding the head of an innocent civilian into a concrete sidewalk)? Or, when that president sent his Attorney General into Ferguson, Missouri to root out the racism involved in the Michael Brown shooting – after a grand jury found no wrongdoing in the officer’s actions against a man who was trying to take away his duty sidearm. That same Attorney General sent DOJ agents throughout America to dig up what they called “racism” in local police agencies, then force them into signing “consent decrees” – effectively handing over policy control to the Federal government.

Make no mistake – this trend will affect you. Your state and your town will be less safe. As the article states, there is a “large body of evidence finding that cops have a substantial impact on crime rates.” This means that the more cops there are on the street, generally the less crime there is in the region. Once criminals and opportunists know that their chances of getting arrested and incarcerated are lower, they become more active.

A case in point: New York City has seen the rate of shootings almost double since 2019 because of Mayor Bill De Blasio’s recent slashing of police budgets in response to anti-cop and anti-American activists demands. This is a city with some of the most stringent anti-gun laws in the U.S. – and shootings are now double. It’s a direct result of not having enough cops on the street to be pro-active. Let’s not forget the recent dis-banding of NYPD’s “Anti Crime Unit” – made up of plain-clothed cops who actively patrolled the streets to prevent or catch crimes in progress. Now, criminals know that anyone NOT wearing a police uniform is NOT a cop – and therefore fair game for mugging, assault, robbery, etc.

So, if this is a nationwide trend, what can you do?

First, you must understand that policing is done primarily at a local level – either by the county, or a city, town, village, etc., or both. Sheriffs are elected, so they are less likely to be influenced by other politicians’ demands, and more likely to be paying attention to what the local voting block is supporting. Police chiefs, however, are hired employees of cities and towns. Like you, police chiefs prefer to keep their jobs, and not have to look for new employment. So, they are more likely to bend to the will of brainless politicians who come up with fantasy “feel good” ideas – like less police resulting in a happier community.

One recent trend, like the one we are seeing here in St. Petersburg, is the pixie-dust policy of hiring fewer cops, and more “social workers” to deal with mentally ill subjects on the street. St. Petersburg’s city council decided to re-allocate $3.1 million that was earmarked for hiring police officers, and instead use it to hire and train unarmed “social workers” to respond to calls like “Disorderly intoxication, Drug overdose, Intoxicated person, Mental health crisis…”

What could possibly go wrong?? Well, let’s look at a very recent incident in Polk County, involving a “Mental Health Crisis.” Here is Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

What do you think will happen when unarmed, sweet-talking “social workers” try to manage a situation such as this? What if it is in your neighborhood – maybe next door?

As an average American who just wants to live their life in peace, I have bad news for you – a free society doesn’t work that way. It’s time for YOU to become an activist. I’m not saying to pick up a bat, and go out into the street to confront BLM and ANTIFA. I’m saying to log off Facebook for an hour each night, and educate yourself about what is going on in your local community. I’m saying pick up your phone, and call your local government officials and state, telling them, unequivocally, that you will do all you can to get them voted out of office in the next election if they support any “anti-cop” policies.

Write emails. Send letters. Get your neighbors involved. If you can build a group that will picket City Hall, more power to you. Your local politicians need to be more afraid of this decline in police numbers than you are. They need to know that they will become John Q. Public once again if they tamper with the Police Department. You need to let your local police chief know that he/she has your support. And, if that chief adopts crazy, feel-good policies that fly in the face of common sense, you need to voice your distain.

Never forget that all of these people work for YOU. But, your voice needs to be louder and more constant than that of ANTIFA.

Brian Whiddon spent 15 years as a street cop. In his book, Blue Lives Matter – The Heart Behind the badge, he shares his experiences, and reminds us that cops, first and foremost, are HUMAN BEINGS, and need to be seen as such. 10% of all proceeds go to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to help families of first responders killed in the line of duty.