The progressive death wish
UPDATE 05-03-21: MPD Captain Jennifer Krueger Favour tells the Werkes that the 34 (not 35) authorized police academy positions were down to 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic, that 18 were hired, and that next year’s training academy is “on pace to meet or exceed” past years’ typical applications, which typically number about 500. In other words, the captain professes not to sense any fallout from the anti-police rhetoric.
(The Werkes is hunting down a rumor that the Madison WI Police Department was only able to hire 18 new officers for the June 1 academy, down from the 35 authorized. Not enough qualified applicants. We are also vetting the theory that eliminating parking enforcement, which the council did last week, is first step to take police off traffic stops entirely. We shall see.)
As the Republican party leaves Donald Trump and the shouters and pouters behind, America is discovering that progressivism is bad for the nation’s health. Literally, because people are dying from it.
Even the New York Times is stirring these days with recognition that today’s Democrat(ic) party is not your father’s Oldsmobile and that Uncle Joe Biden is being held captive by the Hard Left.
“The core question facing Democrats isn’t how faculty-lounge rhetoric plays with today’s swing voters,” writes Ross Douthat in “When wokeness becomes weakness.” “It’s how left-wing policymaking might create tomorrow’s swing voters, if the liberal city becomes ungovernable again.” Did you catch the word “again”? Douthat:
[Last year] saw a major spike in the homicide rate, back to late-1990s levels, which so far is carrying over into 2021. Biden’s speech to Congress last Wednesday (04-28-21) made a vague connection between ongoing “bloodshed” and the liberal-friendly debate over an assault weapons ban, but it isn’t AR-15s doing most of the damage in the current murder wave. Instead, police demoralization and withdrawal in the aftermath of protests and riots seem like a crucial factor. … the Democrats’ problem won’t be the off-putting rhetoric of police abolition; it will be the reality of a rising body count as liberal politicians struggle to negotiate between activists, protesters, progressive prosecutors and cops.
Stir in public schools canceling gifted programs due to “equity,” Douthat continues, “and you get a political backlash, with more recent-immigrant parents in liberal cities and suburbs following their Italian-American antecedents rightward.”
The ever-entertaining Jonah Goldberg agrees.
There is only one topic that obsesses the liberals celebrating the “Biden era” of big government as the solution to all that ails us is — policing. To be sure, left-wingers don’t all support efforts to “defund the police,” but it is very rare to hear any of them push back against those who do.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Is Goldberg wrong? Name the Democrat standing up FOR policing these days.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
It’s a tricky business. Defunding the police is like dismounting a tiger.
It can’t be done safely.
Mayors of reality-free sanctuary chithole cities are justifiably scared to death to restore law and order. They won’t even try to take back their cities. It’s easier to preemptively surrender to appease the militant wings of the D卐M☭CRAT Party, … Occupy Anarchists, muddle-headed Marxists and Antifa fascists.
What’s America heard from top D卐M☭CRAT politicians? What’s been said by Leftist leaders?
Crickets. D卐M☭CRAT silence is deafening.
It begs the question, “Is there any regular, normal law-abiding Lefty left?”
Proglobotically not.
‘Defund The Police’ has become an actual plank in the D卐M☭CRAT Party platform. This unholy trend is being embraced at the highest levels. Both Zhou Bai-Din and Commie “Heels Up” Harris support the radical Left’s War on Law Enforcement. Jim Crow Joe said, “I absolutely support redirecting police funding.” Police officers are now under attack across the country, besieged on all sides by rich Lefty career politicians.
It ‘s become “socialist-cool” to hate cops and love the mob. D卐M☭CRATS and their willing accomplices in the hive-minded media have denigrated, demonized and disparaged cops unjustly. This has led to cops and their families getting attacked. The Leftist War on Law Enforcement shows no signs of slowing down, in fact, it’s getting worse every day. This should alarm every law-abiding American who values public safety, their lives, their family’s lives and their property.
This is most certainly true.
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Democrats are cheerleaders for the FBI (federal law enforcement). Do you think the democrats would still be against law enforcement if all local departments were federalized under the FBI?
I understand what you are trying to express by using ” D卐M☭CRAT “, however you are a bit misguided.
We have been taught that Lenin brought a communist revolution to Russia in 1917. But did you know that in 1931-1933 those communists committed a massive genocide? It was named Holodomor and 10,000,000 Ukrainians and Black Sea Germans (AKA Kulaks) were murdered?
Also in 1933 Germany elected Adolf Hitler. Many historians recognize his election as a defensive posture to the murderous communist regime to the east. Thousands of Germans had innocent relatives (including women, children and babies) murdered by the communists during Holodomor.
Nazism was a defense against communism. To a communist, any man who resists the revolution is labeled a Nazi. The two forms of government are not interchangeable.
In fact, had Leon Trotsky and Lazar Kaganovich not been so cruel to the Christian innocents in Ukraine during Holodomor, it is very unlikely Hitler would’ve seen such a surge of support in 1933. Hitler would have remained irrelevant, Jews would not have been put in camps, and 400,000 American servicemen would have lived a long life.
10,000,000 Christians murdered at the hands of communists during one genocide. Seems like a museum or memorial could exist for them too.
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Mr. Mouse, I’m not sure what yer objection is to The Dog’s post. Doesn’t he equate Nazi-ism and Stalin-ism to evil past politics ? And also attribute the worst of those to the scurrilous currency of the New Left ??
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Ted Wheeler seems to be warming up to it.
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Yes, but I also question the timing of it.
He was silent all last summer during the height of the riots. What has changed since then?
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The left has done so much damage to law enforcement, some of it possibly irreparable. It’ll take a lot more than a few insincere words from leftists to change the trajectory.
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The recruitment numbers you mention are dismal, but leftists are just part of the equation.
Shon Barnes has already been on CNN and seems to give a lot of interviews where he talks negatively about police. Haven’t heard a whole lot about crime fighting and personal responsibility.
He doesn’t strike me as someone who has his cops’ backs; he’s more interested in “reforming” police. Perhaps he hasn’t read the data that officer shootings are extremely rare and that more whites than blacks were shot the past few years.
The following is from the Journal.
“When it comes to policing there are some that want to defund it, there are some that want to reframe it, reimagine it. But simply put, I just want to fix it,” Barnes said. “I want to create a police department that our community is proud of.”
We already do have a police department the community is proud of.
“After watching the Chauvin trial, Barnes said he wants to review police policies, communicate more with the community and “most importantly” make sure “that the culture of the Madison Police Department is a culture where (something like Floyd’s murder) could never happen.”
Yet in another conversation, he talks about being proud to work for a progressive PD. So which is it?
Seems like another politician.
https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime-and-courts/you-re-not-above-the-law-wisconsin-s-black-police-chiefs-sheriffs-discuss-derek-chauvin/article_ab06ec6e-54a9-5c78-9afc-80d782edaa1b.html
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I watched a couple of his heart-to-heart BORING & predictable streamings. How ironic, when we consider Senator Tim’s unfair comparison to “Uncle Tom”. Shon Barnes seems the epitome of “Step-N-Fetch It”…
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Exactly.
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Exactly 2.0!
That is some good $#!T gssson.
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The other day my wife and I heard what we thought were gunshots. I called the police to report it. I got a call back from a police officer who told me that it was fireworks. (Officer, if you are reading this you know who I am.). I told the officer that my primary concern was for her and the rest of the police officers out there as I did not want them to potentially go into a dangerous situation.
Funny how it is that I as a normal everyday citizen am more concerned about the police officers than their new chief is.
God help our police officers out there. Lord knows, their own chief’s, mayors, and city councils will not.
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Democrats are not anti-police! Ask the FBI if the democrat party is anti-police.
Communism requires a strong centralized government which can implement it’s will on everyone. Localized policing stands in the way of total control. That is why they attack the police.
Find me a democrat who did NOT “back the badge” when the FBI was raiding Roger Stone?
They have you convinced that they are advocating for chaos, when they are actually constructing totalitarianism.
Lastly, the republican party should leave Trump and Patriots ‘behind’. The Republican Party is a party of cowards. In fact, the party serves no purpose BECAUSE “they all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen.”— George Orwell.
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Which “past years” would she be referring to?
This is an excerpt from an article I wrote from my MPD advocacy days, circa 2018.
“In 2017, 574 applicants applied to be on the force. At first glance, this may seem impressive, until you contrast it with previous years, especially 2012, when 1,508 men and women vied for much-coveted spots.
One of the inherent results of a smaller applicant pool is that it dilutes the presence of diverse and qualified candidates. As a result, we run the risk of creating a less-than-stellar force.
Year Number of applicants (approximate)
2012 over 1,508
2013 over 1,400
2014 over 1,000
2015 888
2016 640
2017 574 ”
Similar scenarios are playing out across the country.
I weep for REAL cops.
“UPDATE 05-03-21: MPD Captain Jennifer Krueger Favour tells the Werkes that the 34 (not 35) authorized police academy positions were down to 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic, that 18 were hired, and that next year’s training academy is “on pace to meet or exceed” past years’ typical applications, which typically number about 500. In other words, the captain professes not to sense any fallout from the anti-police rhetoric.”
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Thanks, Paula… Had no idea of the impact Freedom, Inc, BLM, and the other locals have had over the years. And the herd-mentality in the City Council & MMSD to out-do “Woke-ness…” You always do yer homework and present it so well -and it sure shows.
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You’re so kind. I sure do miss my advocacy for MPD.
Recruitment numbers decreased by about half since 2014, at about the same time the war on cops began to intensify. Correlation doesn’t always mean causation, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the onslaught of negativity has played a prominent role in current recruitment challenges. Actually, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?
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This message is in response to georgesson. Sorry.
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