Editorial
By Don McDougall
New York cut their police services and has seen a 50% increase in crime in minority neighborhoods. Detroit cut their police budget 20% and has seen a 25% increase in crime citywide.
San Francisco followed a similar path, and now the police only respond to class 1 felonies due to workforce restrictions. Breaking into cars, vandalism and petty theft are no longer police issues.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department contracts to the City for our police services. A 20% reduction in their budget means fewer Deputies on the street, and it means response time moving from 7 minutes to 21 minutes for an emergency. This means rapes and assaults will go un-investigated or served by law enforcement. A 25% increase in crime means:
3 more rapes
1 more murder
4 more robberies
10 more assaults
150 more thefts
Most of our crime comes from other adjoining cities. Oxnard and Ventura now transplant their homeless to Camarillo to prevent jail overcrowding.
Criminals are not stupid
Once it gets known that Camarillo has a slow response time it will be like a feeding call for home burglaries and crime.
Our crime is not indigenous.
The social service network defunder’s wish to design needs to be implemented in those communities where the crime comes from, not within Camarillo. Should we be reducing our law enforcement presence and accepting higher crime numbers when the social network is paid out to other communities?
The City of Camarillo’s City Council has no authority outside the city boundaries, and it is a misallocation of funds to randomly give monies from our City to adjoining cities for their needs. It is also a violation of the GASB protocol and will result in a failed audit and a substantial decrease in the City’s bond rating. The net cost of Defunding the Police may be higher than any savings you hope to realize.
The ONLY City to reformat their police in Camden, NJ; the result was an overall INCREASE in costs of more than 25%.
Defunding the police also leads to panic buying of firearms, with the recent move to ban gun sales already driving up sales. Citizens are turning to so-called assault rifles as their only option for home defense- all the proper choices are sold out. Since the gun ban was implemented, 30,000 guns have been sold in Ventura County, 60% to first-time gun owners. This type of action (Defunding the police) will drive new gun sales to 60,000 by year-end. Is that also the defunder’s goal?
With the L A County Sheriff cutting $500,000,000 from their budget, to balance the COVID-induced budget shortfall, crime in L.A. County will increase and flow North. Armed robbery in L.A. county is up almost 400%. How can a depleted V.C Sheriffs Office. defend Camarillo from an external crime wave? Should we pay for L.A’s social safety net too? Toss in Prop J and the crime increase in Ventura gets even worse.
The concept of Defunding the Police is nothing but foolish, especially for a City like Camarillo, where the lion’s share of our crime comes from outside our borders. Spending on social services inside the City will be of no real value in reducing crime.
The fact is the politicians who want to defund the police want to do so because it makes them popular with other socialists. “Look, Look” they say “see how I can be more virtuous than anyone else”?
I’ve read/heard what these politicians said, and the idea itself is so destructive to the City of Camarillo that any politician that supports it is too stupid to be kept in office.
Vote for the recall (but sign the petition QUICKLY to get it on the ballot!) to keep crime down, save a life and keep our children safe.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
Don McDougall is an accredited Journelist through the National Sports Shooting Foundation, and a regular contributor for ammoland.com. He and his family are 3rd generation residents of Camarillo.
As a retired LAPD officer of 33 years and a citizen of Port Hueneme, I support the recall of any politician that thinks defunding the police is a good idea. Also recall every and any politician that has supported Newsom’s illegal unconstitutional excuse of covid to destroy small business and subjugate all free people.
The organized, Alinskyite Left is active in Camarillo.
Recalling Shawn Mulchay and Susan Santangelo is necessary to stop the Marxist takeover of this peaceful bedroom community. Will you help?
https://www.citizensjournal.us/camarillo-recall-who-is-really-lying-petition-deadline-april-15/#comment-350060
Why don’t we cut the cops pay and relocate it into the area of crime we need? Pay cuts would mean there would be enough funding. Wow
No such thing as an assault weapon so please stop with the narrative, it’s a rifle for home defense.