Reflections on Defunding the Police

Writing is an amazing mental exercise. Sometimes, we grasp a subject, we decide to put our ideas into words and in the process typing, we go off in a different direction. We invent a widget that looks nothing like the blueprint.

When I read that Minneapolis had threatened to defund the police, my reaction was to make a few snarky remarks. I shall take a NIMBY approach but thank you, Minnesota, for serving as guinea pigs in this bold social experiment. Then I got to the keyboard and my fingers took over. and they repeatedly asked, "Why should we fund big-city police forces?"

Things are different in small-town America. There, we have police who behave in a traditional and predictable manner. I tend to think of the police in much of the same way as people think of Congress. In the abstract, we might not hold a strong opinion of such institutions but we usually reelect the incumbents. I have a low opinion of the law enforcement industry but local cops--especially in the small towns and cities where I have resided --have been consistently great.

Throughout America, we tolerate a level of police predation, parasitism, and pension because we know that we can press a button and the police will stand between us and an AK-47. A favorable cost-benefit analysis tilts the scales. But how does the balance sheet look when the police are no longer willing to stand between the sniper and the citizen? Short of that extreme, what happens when police are no longer willing to stand between brick and plate glass?

Remember when we had to read the British tabloids to find out about Barack Obama's secret life or when we had to watch Dutch TV to find a Julain Assange interview? I have been watching Australian coverage of American riots. The foreign journalists are not compulsively honest but they are not as blatantly partisan or dishonest as their highly-paid American counterparts.
.
The Aussies have yet to tell me that Donald Trump murdered George Floyd. I have not heard the horse shit lines about "mostly peaceful protestors" juxtaposed with a backdrop of arson. I have not been treated to insults about systemic racism juxtaposed with looted pharmacies and liquor stores. What they did tell me, somewhat innocently I suppose, is that New York had a strong police presence but that the police and looters clustered in different places. Huh?

Let's back up a step or two. Why should a citizen of a sanctuary city fund a police force? The sanctuary police force has already surrendered to globalist criminals and has ceased to make public safety their primary objective. Returning to that aforementioned balance sheet, even if the police cannot deport the serial rapist, the citizens are still afforded some protection and the smiles return to the faces.

Now let's revisit present-day big city America where the police are not offering merchants and citizens any protection at all. We have witnessed scenes where police officers have "taken a knee" in ugly displays of servitude to the criminal mobs. Why don't the citizens step up and say, "Let Antifa fund your pension, blue boy. You are fired."

While we are on the subject of defunding fat cat pensioners, should we abolish the FBI? Maybe we could hold our noses and look past the country's largest organized crime cartel if they defended us against Terror Incorporated. You know, the old Whitey Bulger might have been a sinner but the streets of Southie were always safe. No crime in Little Italy. Little old ladies have nothing to worry about in Angelo Bruno's neighborhood. This time around, the Hoover Gang did not step up.

There was a time, not too long ago, when some questions were too ridiculous to entertain. For instance, if you proposed to replace the metropolitan police with street gangs in 2005, you would not have been granted much attention. In 2020, that idea does not seem so ridiculous. If we replaced the Seattle or Chicago or Houston Police Department with the Killaz, would things be any worse? Would it make any difference?  Maybe it's time we found out.

Trump's Katrina Moment

I am repeating journalist cliches. Ugh.

I can't remember Trump's other Katrina moments but I can tell you all about this one.

The Left is pulling out all its tricks to gain full control of America. George Soros, Lebron James, Hillary, social media, news media, Hollywood, local police, The Democrat Party and mostly, Antifa and allied thugs. No one is bigger than the cause: Women, children, non-whites: if they are in the way of progress, they will be steamrolled.

Donald Trump's 2016 campaign had one umbrella principle. It was not immigration or trade policy or tax reform. Those issues were screeched by the news media but Trump's base saw a larger problem. The systemic corruption rooted in DC and flowing from sea to shining sea negatively affected every other political issue of the day. What the Left cannot understand and the media will not acknowledge is that Trump was elected as an anti-corruption crusader. A bold position of overdue reform is what got Donald Trump elected.

Trump has been in office for almost three and a half years. That is plenty of time to take action against Antifa and their allied thugs. It has not happened. We can make excuses and some are legitimate. The FBI and DOJ had been hijacked. Points taken, but that was a long time ago.

Through proxies, Trump has talked tough about draining swamps, unsealed indictments, the storm, blah, blah, blah. Big talk, not much action.

Three and a half years is long enough, Mr. President. Comey and Rosenstein and Yates are long gone. There are no more excuses. The time has come, Mr. President. This is your genuine Katrina Moment.