Whatever Happened to ‘Defund the Police?’

Recent murders in Los Angeles and New York have made me wonder whatever happened to the “Defund the Police” movement. It also made me realize that a year ago, saying anything positive about law enforcement might get you targeted by Twitter mobs accusing you of racism.

Those days seem long gone.

As we see murders and crime rising alarmingly across the U.S., the woke brigades screaming to “defund the police” since the protests of 2020 apparently have cancelled themselves. You barely hear a peep from them.  

As we see murders and crime rising alarmingly across the U.S., the woke brigades screaming to “defund the police” since the protests of 2020 apparently have cancelled themselves.You barely hear a peep from them. 

The movement, you’ll recall, got its start in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020 after the horrific killing of George Floyd at the hands of policeman Derek Chauvin. 

A year later, however, the backlash had already begun. NPR reported that “Stopping violent crime is an urgent concern in Minneapolis. Thirty-one people have died by homicide so far this year, more than twice as many as this time in 2020.

“Mayor Jacob Frey says the depleted police force is struggling to keep up. In the last year, more than 200 officers have quit, retired or taken extended medical leave.”

Around that time, The New York Times reported that “In cities across America, police departments are getting their money back…The abrupt reversals have come in response to rising levels of crime in major cities last year, the exodus of officers from departments large and small and political pressures.”

How far we’ve come from the days in 2020 when white America was so consumed with racial guilt it stopped seeing straight. Jumping on the anti-cop and anti-racist bandwagons—which merged as one—was all that mattered. It was performative activism at its emptiest. Who suffered most? Blacks and poor minorities in the inner cities, of course, who had to brave the inevitable rise in crime that followed the “defunding” of law enforcement.

Has there ever been a more self-destructive idea than the defunding of law and order? It was so self-destructive that even the loudest progressives are now saying enough. Responding to an ongoing crime epidemic in San Francisco, a few weeks ago the woke mayor of that super-woke city said she would no longer tolerate “all the bull—- that has destroyed our city… We are past the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable.”

Try to organize a “defund the police” march in Los Angeles today and you’d be lucky to get a minyan. With murders in 2021 up 53 percent versus 2019, the mood in LaLa Land is squarely in the “please bring back the cops” camp. The recent killings of two women — LA nurse Sandra Shells and UCLA student Brianna Kupfer — has increased the pressure on the city’s top prosecutor, District Attorney George Gascon, to reverse his soft-on-crime approach.

“Nobody should have a district attorney who refuses to file charges against murderers and rapists and child abusers to the fullest extent of the law. That person does not deserve to be the DA,” said Jon Hatami, a longtime LA prosecutor, to Fox News. 

Meanwhile, on the other coast, it took only a week or two, and a few murders, for the new Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, to walk back his memo announcing a decriminalization plan that he claimed “will make us safer.” Could it be that he quickly figured out this was exactly the wrong message you want to give to potential criminals?

This mugging by reality transcends politics. Friends of mine who are diehard Democrats can’t stand the rise in crime in Los Angeles and don’t really care which party will make their city safe—as long as it gets done.

Our country is in transition mode from being hypnotized by wokeness to being mugged by reality. This mugging transcends politics. Friends of mine who are diehard Democrats can’t stand the rise in crime in Los Angeles and don’t really care which party will make their city safe — as long as it gets done. 

This is surely a messianic moment. We finally found something that is stronger than partisan politics—the fear of dying.

The truth is, I love law and order. I understand there are rogue cops who must be rooted out, but all in all, maybe because I was born in the Third World, I love living in a country where law and order is taken seriously.

This was never about denying the presence of racism and brutality among some elements of our law enforcement. It was always about finding the right balance between justice reform and keeping our cities safe. The word “reform,” however, is not very sexy, so would-be revolutionaries went all in on “defund the police.” But by compelling spineless leaders across the country to diminish our law enforcement, they got a lot more than they bargained for.

They bought themselves an epic backlash, where physical safety is now virtually on everyone’s lips.

Maybe that’s why we don’t see much of the “defund” brigades these days—they’re also afraid to walk on our streets.