I’m going to start with two numbers that tell the real story of what’s playing out with policing in 2020. The first is 59% and the second is 238. Any idea what those numbers represent? Well, 59% is the increase in line of duty deaths for law enforcement professionals in the United States this year. In fact, exiting July, the US had already suffered more LOD’s than in all of 2019. If this is new information to you, or if you only know of this because of my reporting, that shows just how absurdly biased the news reporting on policing has been. So, what then is the 238? That’s the number of police agencies that have already suffered some form of defunding action by local governments in the United States. Tha's happened within the past two months in the wake of the George Floyd murder.
There are 17,985 law enforcement agencies in the United States. This means that already 1.6% of all law enforcement agencies have been defunded to some extent. While that number may sound small, it’s 100% to those in these communities but of even more concern is the pace. We’re currently averaging four police agencies being defunded to some degree daily. Unsurprisingly we’re seeing a surge in violent activity in cities where this is occurring highlighted by spikes in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, and Seattle.
This takes me back to local elections. Two weeks from today is Florida’s primary Election Day. Numerous local elections will be decided and impacting everything from school board races to judges, supervisors of election, etc. Though not as sexy as November’s Election Day, the implications to your daily life might be greater with the elections taking place this month.
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