Your Economy (No Politics)

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California hemorrhages its law enforcement officers to a red state

By Olivia Murray

Here’s the report, from Fox News today:

Blue line getting thinner in West Coast states as police take refuge in Idaho

High concentration of retired and active first responders in Idaho not a coincidence, says former California High Patrol officer[.]

California is losing its law enforcement officers to a red state—imagine that! Men and women whose job may require them to lay their lives on the line, who handle some of the scummiest and darkest realities in the history of humanity, want to be respected and supported by their employers and community? No kidding.

And it’s not just a few cops here and there—deep blue pro-crime cities are hemorrhaging law enforcement officers:

Cities large and small across the country suffered severe staffing shortages on the heels of anti-police protests in 2020. Four years later, some departments still can’t stop the bleeding.

Seattle’s police staffing is at its lowest level since the 1990s, according to a March KING 5 report. Earlier this year in California, the Alameda Police Department offered a $75,000 signing bonus — the highest in the nation — on top of a six-figure starting salary to try to entice new officers.

Of course the lawlessness of the “defund the police” agenda, which isn’t really an accountability movement in bureaucratic policing (like I’d like to see) but a pro-crime and anti-law enforcement agenda, is obnoxious (and unacceptable) enough, because the citizens and the people suffer tremendously, especially the most vulnerable people us: minority communities which are pervaded by violent crime that’s already high enough, and the children in such communities who are subjected to terrible abuses. But, what I find doubly obnoxious is that instead of implementing policies that work, like the tough-on-crime policies of red states, the government uses taxpayer dollars—like the $75,000 bonus in Alameda, California—to woo new officers.

The people responsible for this don’t pay, in the slightest, and it’s enraging.

And, with the staffing crisis being what it is, how much have standards been lowered? This is extremely concerning for all of the obvious reasons; I distinctly remember being in the Chicago airport during the Trump years, and seeing a female Chicago police officer literally waddle through the airport because she was so overweight, and that was years ago. How much worse has Chicago gotten? L.A.? Seattle? Portland? Baltimore? Philadelphia?

Now, I really don’t like citizen initiatives, ballot measures, or any other roundabout ways in which the people directly vote on policy, but perhaps I might make a exception for this:

A ballot measure that forces all mayors and city council members in deep blue cities to serve in the local law enforcement agencies, for a considerable amount of time; I assume the crime problem would be solved quickly, if their own skin were in the game.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/california_hemorrhages_its_law_enforcement_officers_to_a_red_state.html