By Michael Hernandez
In the midst of social chaos: rioting, looting and burning of buildings and cites—America needs law enforcement more than ever! Defunding police leaves minorities and women at-risk? Unless these are the groups you most wish to abandon and get hurt?
Americans really expect social and community workers to police their communities? With no police: You really expect drug usage to go down? The murder rate to go down? Gang activity to go down? Terrorism to go down? Domestic violence to go down? Juvenile crime to go down? Organized crime to go down? Children kidnapping to go down?
Who are we kidding? The exact opposite will occur without law enforcement. Yes, there are some bad cops. But there are bad actors in every employment group. Do we get rid of teachers, plumbers, carpenters, because of the bad actors? Yes, we need police reform. But reform means more money, more training not less money.
What a lie to say that America will be safer without law enforcement. In fact, a Monmouth poll taken between May 28 and June 1st (reported by Breitbart News) showed that both Blacks and Whites each gave 72 percent support for their local police department. Just 16 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans said they were in favor of the idea. Frankly, that’s too many!
The Democratic-led House of Representatives (which includes Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and Democrat Senators are attempting to move ahead on new legislation aimed at defunding police departments. This is being spearheaded by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) as well as the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Judiciary Committee. All legislators who want to defund police as well as their media and entertainment supporters should first get rid of their own personal security prior to pushing forward.
Other major cities considering such actions include: Los Angeles and New York.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times that he will try to cut between $100 to $150 million from the police budget. He is also seeking “reparations for the impact of slavery.” Mayor Garcetti: Who is paying for this? Who will qualify? Will you require L.A. residents to pay for this? Or do you expect all Californians to pay?
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday that he would shift funds away from the six billion dollar annual budget for the New York Police Department to youth and social services as part of the mayor’s task force on racial inclusion and equality co-chaired by his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is black. Mayor Bill de Blasio: How much money do you plan to shift?
According to Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr when police pull out of communities, black deaths tend to increase. The Guardian reported that Baltimore saw a “brutal rise in murders” after police pulled back. For those of you who support defunding police: Do you want more blacks killed?
Who will you call when there is no police? Your neighbor? Your social worker? Your counselor? Your pastor? Or will you use a gun to defend yourself?
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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The answer is to challenge the results of Police Unions on the safety of both Citizens and Police Officers. To challenge the Union is not either easy or quick, but necessary.
I support the Police Chief in Minneapolis in this endeavor. He may have made some mistakes in the rush of a riot, but in this he’s spot on by bypassing the union.
This is wrong and sadly confusing to your readers. Although ignorance is bliss. And misery loves company, this is NOT a call against police erracation! It is shifting monies into proven based services that strengthen communities and work at implanted community driven police.
Oxnard is a great example of what that looks like!
Take it out of someplace else, then.
I fully support all police agency’s across this great country. And to think that those whinny liberals are trying to control our lives without the vote of all the American people when it come’s to defunding our police. I suggest that the police departments across the country stage a one day “Blue Flu” and see how well the “Libs” like that when they are faced with protecting them self’s and their family’s from the criminals that will run wild for that day. I also suggest that when election time comes that we vote as many as possible Democrats out of office .
I don’t know what world these nincompoops live in. Perhaps with their private security force paid for by the taxpayers they have no need for the cop on the street.
As for the rest of us who are actually living where the cop on the street work, we need the threat that the police provide to wrong doers. I worked in court for 25 years. I can tell one and all you haven’t met evil until you have met some of the depraved, evil people that live among us.
Let me cite a few examples. After all the elapsed time, I may not remember the first names and middle initials, but the crimes and the folks who committed them linger on. Robert(?) Cruz McLain. Originally was sent to state prison for raping two little pre-school girls. He swore he would get the mother of the girls who testified against him at trial. When he was released from state prison (What? you say.) He made his way back to Ventura County to carry out his threat. On his way back, he and a couple of his cronies from prison raped and killed a girl in Santa Cruz. Upon arriving in Ventura County he and his buddy from prison raped and killed a girl at McGrath State Beach. I think he was sentenced to death from this county, for whatever that is worth
Juan Hernandez was in custody since a small boy. I can’t say if he had become psychotic from play acting to get into hospital wards or if he truly was as psychotic as he acted. The shrinks who examined him were of divided opinion. Some thought he truly was psychotic. Others thought it was an over the top act. The chief of the psychiatric department at county hospital decided she could help him. That is until he produced a sharp instrument, took her hostage and escaped from the psych ward at county hospital.
When Juan was at his psychotic best he was truly scary. I personally thought it was only a matter of time until he killed someone whether he was psychotic or not.
Almonza and Herrera, a charming duo. They held several folks hostage over what was for their hostages a very long weekend in a house down in the Pierpont area. They took all the valuables the folks had and repeatedly raped the women in the group. One of the pair turned up on the east coast after he got out of prison for committing some other crime. I lost track of them after I read that he was in custody back east.
Washington — I forget this scary dude’s last name. He was tried for chopping his friend in the head with a hatchet because the friend told him he couldn’t have a new poker hand just because he didn’t like the one he was dealt. He told his private defense attorney, retained by his family at great expense that he was going to kill him when he got out. At least that’s what the attorney reported. After he served his time for chopping up and brain damaging his “friend” he was arrested for stealing a large quantity of cosmetics from Sav-On. The Star Free Press, living in the ivory tower they seem to occupy wept and moaned about how he was going to go away for life for three strikes just for stealing some cosmetics. He stole over $500 worth of cosmetics, so it wasn’t just some fingernail polish and lipstick for his girlfriend.
The Star shut up after he was re-arrested in jail for raping his cell mate. I hope that he got life. The Star didn’t report any more on his case.
And then Stephen Rockwell. He and a couple of his friends kidnapped a young girl down in the San Fernando Valley, drove up to the mountains behind Ojai and raped her repeatedly while torturing her. They recorded it all. It was before the days of cell phones or they would have recorded it on their cell phones. She pleaded with them not to kill her but they did anyway. A colleague of mine worked that trial. The DA played the souvenir tape in court before the jury. My colleague told me in all his years working in court it was the only time he ever cried listening to that tape.
Rosie Bird and the Supremes overturned Mr. Rockwell’s well-deserved death penalty sentence and he now regularly comes up for review for parole. Because Rosie and her henchmen overturned all those death penalty cases before we had life w/o parole as we do now is why Charlie Manson kept coming up for parole, together with the lady who accompanied the killer gang as they perpetrated their bloody deeds. And, of course, Sirhan Sirhan who may have changed the course of U.S. history with his assassination of Robert Kennedy.
So these are the folks that these nincompoops who live sheltered existences and have their private protection provided by us slobs on the streets, want to have social workers and community organizers talk to Washington with his hatchet or Juan in his psychotic frenzy. Sarah, the chief psychiatrist for Ventura County can attest to how well that works. She was treating Juan when he pulled some kind of stabbing instrument on her and took her hostage. Fortunately for her he wasn’t in the mood to kill her that day. She certainly believed him when he told her if she didn’t do what he wanted he would kill her.
t was cops who apprehended Juan. He kind of stood out in his orange jump suit. It wasn’t a community organizer. It wasn’t some psych worker, it was cops with guns who told Juan he was dead if he didn’t get on the ground. Juan wasn’t that crazy. He got on the ground.
Perhaps one of the readers who thought he might like to offer his services to talk to these folks and reason with them in place of the hard-shell cops who are so quick to draw their guns, having had to deal with folks like Juan and Washington and Stephen are having second thoughts about the advisability of getting rid of police forces.
I admit that in some instances the police are out of control. I just read today where Minnesota police officers went around slashing tires on cars they came across because “they might be used in the rioting or used to run down rioters.” What I have to say about that wouldn’t be printed in this paper. A cop is out of control when he calmly kneels on a man’s neck in full daylight in the presence of witnesses with cameras who are recording the scene and seemingly thinks nothing of it. He murdered a man in cold blood in full view of witnesses. He must have thought that absolutely nothing was going to happen to him in order to do that. What had he been told in the day room and at briefings before going on duty that ever gave him the idea that he could commit murder in the daytime in front of witnesses and suffer no consequences?
Most assuredly the Minneapolis P.D. needs a dramatic overhaul because there is something intrinsically wrong when a member of that department thinks he can commit murder in broad daylight with witness with no consequences. He thinks the other officers will lie to cover him; the department will investigate and whitewash murder? What attitude running through the department led him to that conclusion?