When it comes to crime, Democrats are in danger of being mugged by reality

[gwb-trading]

Here is a good -in-depth article that describes in detail the history of defunding the police in Durham.

Police Reform Finds Its Backlash
Durham was transforming the police long before ‘Defund’ became a national discussion. But after an electoral shift in the deep blue city, the future of an aggressive push on policing alternatives is uncertain—and shootings continue
https://www.theassemblync.com/long-form/police-reform-finds-its-backlash/

 

[Tony Stark]

And many not major cities defunded police budgets including Durham in our area. The result was that crime increased greatly. There is a direct correlation.

Please post a source showing Durham PD stop receiving funds or received fewer funds than the prior year.Thanks.

 

[gwb-trading]

More than 20 major cities have reduced police budgets in some form.

Just some more information.

Nearly half of the country’s 50 largest cities cut their police budgets in the aftermath: 11% in Seattle, 15% in New York and Minneapolis, 33% in Austin.

 

[Tony Stark]

Here is a good -in-depth article that describes in detail the history of defunding the police in Durham.

Police Reform Finds Its Backlash
Durham was transforming the police long before ‘Defund’ became a national discussion. But after an electoral shift in the deep blue city, the future of an aggressive push on policing alternatives is uncertain—and shootings continue
https://www.theassemblync.com/long-form/police-reform-finds-its-backlash/

Nowhere in that article does it say Durham PD stop receiving funds or received fewer funds than the prior year.

 

[Tony Stark]

Just some more information.

Nearly half of the country’s 50 largest cities cut their police budgets in the aftermath: 11% in Seattle, 15% in New York and Minneapolis, 33% in Austin.

Even as the 50 largest U.S. cities reduced their 2021 police budgets by 5.2% in aggregate—often as part of broader pandemic cost-cutting initiatives—law enforcement spending as a share of general expenditures rose slightly to 13.7% from 13.6%,

 

[gwb-trading]

Nowhere in that article does it say Durham PD stop receiving funds or received fewer funds than the prior year.

Let me post some paragraphs from the article since it obvious you have not read it in detail...

2019 -

After the city manager scaled back Davis’ request to 18 patrol officers, Durham Beyond Policing released a manifesto: a 50-page counterproposal that lobbied for a three-year moratorium on hiring new officers. Instead of paying $1.2 million for more cops, the coalition argued, the city should spend $650,000 to provide its part-time employees with a living wage and establish a Community and Safety Wellness Task Force to develop “viable alternatives to policing.”

The council agreed. A 4-3 majority rejected the 18 officers, and further rejected Mayor Schewel’s compromise offer of nine officers.

That hard line didn’t prove absolute. In March 2020, with gang violence escalating, the council unanimously agreed to hire six new cops. But the city’s police force still felt besieged.

2020 -

In an interview, a spokesman for the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police blamed the “toxic political climate” for low morale and high turnover. Last fiscal year, about six officers left the DPD each month. At the end of June, the department—which is budgeted for 677 full-time positions—had more than 90 vacancies.

2021 -

Eventually, the council voted 6-1—Johnson voted no—to freeze “up to” 15 additional police vacancies to transfer to Community Safety in January.

The recent election -

Then came the election.

Every elected official in Durham is a Democrat, but hegemony hasn’t promoted harmony. The city’s political set has splintered into messy coalitions: the Durham People’s Alliance (PA) and its allies on the left, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People and Friends of Durham on the not-quite-as-left.

In recent years, tensions simmered as the PA grew more powerful. They reached a boil last year when Durham County Manager Wendell Davis accused a PA-backed commissioner of racism, and again in May, when three PA-backed commissioners declined to renew the county manager’s contract.

So when this fall’s municipal elections began, the Durham Committee was determined to shift the equation. The PA’s machine never got into gear.

The Committee secured a 4-3 majority, with well-connected former superior court judge Elaine O’Neal elected mayor, beating her PA-backed opponent. Steve Schewel, the PA-supported incumbent mayor, didn’t run again.

Middleton says voters’ message was inescapable.

“That was solely a referendum about gun violence in this city,” he told The Assembly after the primary. “It wasn’t a referendum about the economy. The defining issue was the way we talk about and are dealing with gun violence and crime.”

 

[gwb-trading]

Even as the 50 largest U.S. cities reduced their 2021 police budgets by 5.2% in aggregate—often as part of broader pandemic cost-cutting initiatives—law enforcement spending as a share of general expenditures rose slightly to 13.7% from 13.6%,

Which simply may mean they dropped spending in other areas of the budget so police expenditures rose a mere 0.1% in context of the overall budget.

 

[Tony Stark]

Just some more information.

Nearly half of the country’s 50 largest cities cut their police budgets in the aftermath: 11% in Seattle, 15% in New York and Minneapolis, 33% in Austin.

Lets look at the cities that increased funding

 

[Tony Stark]

so police expenditures rose

First you said they were defunded

 

[Tony Stark]

2019 -
That hard line didn’t prove absolute. In March 2020, with gang violence escalating, the council unanimously agreed to hire six new cops. But the city’s police force still felt besieged.

So they added cops.Got it