SEATTLE RE-FUNDS POLICE: Experiment Fails to the Surprise of Almost No One

It was almost too dumb to take seriously, like something out of the cult-classic dystopian comedy film Idiocracy:  We were going to defund the police.  America, according to the liberal left side of the aisle, was going to scale back law enforcement en masse in an attempt to somehow improve on the safety of the nation.

Look, the right side of the argument gets it:  There are some ugly incidents out there, and there’s no sense in pretending that’s not the case.  But the wholesale vilification and subsequent fiscal starvation could not truly be the answer.

It’s like saying, “we keep having seat belt incident on this rollercoaster.  If we remove the seat belts, those statistics would improve”.

And despite the rather plain and undeniable nature of this reality, Seattle tried it anyway, and the experiment returned a rather obvious result. 

Seattle residents Victoria Beach, Eli Hoshor and Jonathan Choe said police shortages have left their city in dire straits in the aftermath of officials’ anti-law enforcement rhetoric.

Homicides skyrocketed by 24% while motor vehicle thefts climbed by 30% in the city last year. Overall crime ticked up by 4%.

Mayor Bruce Harrell pushed for increased police presence to curb the issue Tuesday, saying, “We need immediate action and innovation to respond to our public safety issues… Seattle saw a 4% rise in reported crime last year… We need more officers to address our staffing crisis.”

The mood was heavy.

“Right now, I don’t have a lot of hope,” Beach told Todd Piro Wednesday on “Fox & Friends First.”

“I think the mayor is on the right track, but Seattle is in a huge crisis. Our city has been destroyed, and we’re not going to get it back anytime soon,” she added.

Beach said she agrees that the city needs more police to help cut back on crime, saying the situation is currently a “free for all.”

And then, summing it up all too perfectly and predictably:

“If you want to commit a crime, move to Seattle,” she said.