Free Republic

Denver intends to defund its police force and fire department in order to better support those illegally entering the U.S. through a program that provides a monthly debit card based on family size, free housing, “access to language instruction, career pathway explorations, industry-recognized credential training, and work-based learning opportunities.”

San Francisco's mayor has ordered city departments including police and public health to propose budget cuts of $206 million by next week in a desperate attempt to reverse the stricken city's 'doom loop' spiral into economic collapse. Law enforcement budgets in the city, which is ravaged by homelessness, drugs and a downtown business exodus, face cuts of $27.6 million, while the public health department could lose a further $25.9 million, according to a DailyMail.com analysis. The fire department must propose reductions of around $10.5 million to meet the mayor's demand, while city's crumbling Municipal Transport Agency must find savings of...

As Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith struggled this summer to fill vacancies in his small department, he warned the town's City Council that unless pay and benefits improved, finding new officers would never happen. When nothing changed, Smith quit. So did his few remaining officers, leading the Minnesota town of 1,300 residents to shutter its police force in late August. America is in the midst of a police officer shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the two-fold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the murder of George Floyd...

The chairwoman of a Democrat group in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who once supported efforts to “defund police” is being criticized after she thanked officers for coming to her rescue after she was attacked and carjacked in broad daylight while her children watched on. Shivanthi Sathanandan, the second vice chairwoman of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) Party, reported Wednesday on Facebook she had been assaulted by a group of men outside her home. Yesterday my children and I were violently car jacked in the driveway of our home in Minneapolis,” Sathanandan explained. “Four very young men, all carrying guns, beat me violently down to...

When those five people were shot in the 1900 block of North Stockton around 4:40 a.m., no cars were assigned to patrol the local police beat. Inside the yellow crime scene tape that officers draped between thick tree trunks and vehicle side view mirrors, liquor bottles and plastic cups dotted the ground.

A left-wing state lawmaker who has pushed for cutting police funding first moved to the district she is seeking to represent in Congress because “safety issues” near “the projects” in Harlem prompted her to shack up with her tech bro then-fiancé in the Financial District, The Post has learned. Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D-Lower Manhattan) told a local publication in 2016 — when she was campaigning to initially get elected to her current seat — that she headed to the wealthier Manhattan neighborhood because she witnessed a pair of disturbing crimes and fell victim to one. “I actually was robbed when...

Unless you are brainwashed, you regard the statements "men give birth" and "defund the police" as absurd. Why, then, do leftists (as opposed to liberals and conservatives) say these things and even believe them? I think there are two -- related -- explanations. One is that the Left seeks to tear down every normative institution. If men give birth, "man" and "woman" no longer mean anything. "Men give birth" means the end of the male-female distinction, the most basic distinction in the human race. Racial distinctions pale in comparison. So do national distinctions. Marxists support the obliteration of the male-female...

Amid the latest hand-waving around vaccines and variants, we can't lose sight of the tragedies still playing out in our cities. Following their push to defund the police, silence and amnesia have gripped Democrats in the weeks following the Nov. 21 tragedy, when a man intentionally drove his SUV through the Waukesha Christmas Parade. As families and communities came together to celebrate this sacred holiday, this career criminal senselessly released on low bail caused six deaths and no fewer than 62 injuries. Easily outraged Democrats have devoted little attention to this intentional attack, as well as the ongoing violence still...

We have Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, but Sweden has their Gävle goat aka Gävlebocken: “Gävlebocken is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle, Sweden. It is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days. It has been the subject of repeated arson attacks, and, despite security measures and the nearby presence of a fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance...

First they came for Christmas…Christmas tree at Fox News HQ, torched by somebody last night, engulfed in flamesWhere’s Mayor Giuliani’s broken window approach to crime when you need it?The theory quite simply is that going after the small offenses leads to reductions in serious crimes. Some Democrats don’t approve of the ‘Broken Windows’ policy however because it’s…racist, or something. A House resolution, put forth by the Squad in 2020 spells it out:“The system of policing in America, and its systemic targeting of and use of deadly and brutal force against people of color, particularly Black people, stems from the long...

Usually at this time of year, San Francisco’s luxury stores are decked with holiday garlands. Instead, they’re boarded up after widespread “flash mob” looting turned Union Square — the city’s most fashionable shopping district — into an area resembling a blighted neighborhood in Detroit. “It’s a ghost town,” said Michelle Tandler, a San Francisco native and high-tech entrepreneur, whose photos of the stores barricaded in plywood went viral on social media this week. “Every store has a security guard. People are going to lose their jobs. And these things have a ripple effect.” Two weeks ago, San Francisco was the...

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on Monday revealed plans to reverse cuts to the city's police department and seek to hire more officers amid a spike in violence and homicides. The decision makes Oakland the latest city to bolster its support for law enforcement after several cities that committed to defunding the police in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020 experienced a considerable rise in violent crime. ... From New York City to Los Angeles - in cities that had some of the largest Black Lives Matter protests, and some with an extensive history of police brutality - police...

When people think of the proper role of city government, they usually think police, roads, and schools. The City of Los Angeles ranks near the bottom in all three (not to mention having the worst homeless problem in the country). Perhaps this is because the city seems more intent on engaging in social experiments than fixing roads, fighting crime, and improving schools. The latest example is its new “BIG:LEAP” basic income program, designed to “transform the role of local government.” While defunding the police and giving free money to people are considered fringe ideas in most places, in Los Angeles...

Portland has 1.2 officers per 1000 people. National average in 2020 was 2.4 officers per 1000 people PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The number of Portland Police Bureau sworn officers is the fewest it’s been since 1989. There are currently 788 sworn members combating record shootings and murders, confronting anarchists breaking windows and property, dealing with far left and far right groups squaring off in the city, crime in homeless camps and a rash of stolen cars. Portland, which once proudly called itself “The City that Works” is struggling to keep up with crime. Police staffing numbers in Portland have dwindled...

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown was accused Monday of presiding over “the most dangerous city in the country” as City Council members from across the city demanded that he hire more police officers — not just fill the 1,000 existing vacancies. At a City Council budget hearing, some members vented their anger about the rise in homicides, shootings and carjackings from last year’s troubling levels that has left their constituents afraid, no matter where they live. “I cannot remember a time in my lifetime that it has been as violent as it is right now. … Most people I know...

They came out with an important investigative report showing shockingly collapsed numbers of police responses to crime in Minneapolis. But they called the damning data "complicated." In the wake of the rabid left's demonization of police, the "Ferguson effect" has come onto Minneapolis with a vengeance since the death of petty criminal George Floyd while in police custody. That's news. But despite statistics like this: In the year after Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, the number of people approached on the street by officers who considered them suspicious dropped by 76%, Reuters found after analyzing more than 2.2 million...

At today's Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) called out Solomon J. Greene, the Assistant Secretary Designate at the Housing and Urban Development, about his tweet about defunding the police.

The federal government provides tens of millions of dollars each year to a nonprofit group that supports the movement to defund police departments and dismantle the criminal justice system. Officials with the Brooklyn-based Vera Institute of Justice have urged the government to “radically dismantle” police departments in order to fix a system they say dehumanizes people of color. The institute is heavily funded by the federal government. So far this fiscal year, the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies have awarded the Vera Institute more than $89 million in contracts and grants. The organization...

Billionaire and inventor George Soros recently provided a generous donation to a racial justice organization that supports defunding the police. The Hungarian-born American philanthropist donated $1 million to the Color Of Change PAC on May 14, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. The PAC refers to itself as the 'nation's largest online racial justice organization,' calling for 'divesting from and dismantling the systems that unjustly harm Black people.'

Blahblahblahblah Republicans didn't want to spend like drunk sailors and raise taxes, so they defunded the police. We need to re-think policing and empower the FBI.