Policewoman at night with flashlight, emergency lights

Police Departments Obliterate Fitness Requirements In Order To Recruit More Women

Matt Walsh

Memphis

Nashville

Opinion

Police

Police Reform

Readers Pass

Women

Yesterday I went into some detail about the unfolding crisis in Haiti. The prime minister is stranded in Puerto Rico and has now <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68541349">officially resigned</a>.
The streets are now ruled by a warlord named &#8220;Barbecue.&#8221; Police officers are nowhere to be found, even at the country&#8217;s national prison complex, where the doors are currently wide open.
All of this is relevant mainly because, for years, leftists have pretended Haiti is salvageable. They didn&#8217;t do that simply to contradict Donald Trump, although that&#8217;s a big part of it. Their primary motivation is to transform this country into Haiti. Unchecked, one-way migration is one way to do that. Another way is to adopt Haiti&#8217;s approach to policing — which is to say, to stop policing entirely. Beginning last year, criminals in Haiti understood that they could commit crimes with impunity. No one would even attempt to arrest them.
As Human Rights Watch put it in a recent report, &#8220;There have been no prosecutions or convictions of those responsible for killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence, or their supporters, since the start of 2023.&#8221;
That&#8217;s what a total stand down of law and order looks like. It was telegraphed, and as expected, anarchy followed. So you have to wonder — especially in the aftermath of BLM and &#8220;defunding the police&#8221; — how long until something like that happens here? How long until criminals in America understand that they can commit serious crimes, and no police officers will even bother to show up?
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1325-the-city-of-pittsburgh-takes-the-purge-as-an-instruction-manual" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
If you&#8217;ve followed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pittsburgh-police-cuts-staff-between-3-7-a-m-no-longer-respond-if-not-in-progress-emergency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the news</a> out of Pittsburgh this week, you know that this moment is already here. The city has announced that police officers will simply stop responding to the vast majority of crimes — including burglary and harassment — as long as there&#8217;s no &#8220;in-progress emergency.&#8221; Additionally, between 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m, as few as 20 police officers will be on-duty to cover the entire city of 300,000 people. This is as close to a real-life implementation of the Purge as we’ve seen. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Pittsburgh police will no longer respond to certain calls &amp; will instead be redirecting people to a telephone unit.
Those crimes include thefts, harassment, criminal mischief, burglary alarms, etc.
Additionally, there were be only 20 police officers patrolling the… <a href="https://t.co/H5dqLud72W">pic.twitter.com/H5dqLud72W</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1766896286224003248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
What this means is that, if someone breaks into your house in Pittsburgh, and you call 911, they won&#8217;t come. Even if your alarm is going off, and your alarm company is notifying the authorities, they don&#8217;t care. The police chief in Pittsburgh has clarified that for burglaries, under this new policy, they need some sort of &#8220;second verification&#8221; in order to ensure that the burglar is on the premises at that moment, before police will even consider driving out to your house.
In other words, it&#8217;s like logging into your bank account. They need two-factor authentication so that they can really be sure that there&#8217;s a burglary going on. Your alarm just counts as one factor. Additional factors, according to the police chief, could include video footage of the burglar in your house. Or it could be a photo of broken glass with the burglar standing around next to it. Or perhaps you can get the burglar to pose for a picture holding that day’s newspaper. Maybe you can take a quick selfie video with the burglar where he looks at the camera and says, ‘Hey folks, just here burglarizing this home real quick. Sorry for the inconvenience!’ But outside of situations like that, the Pittsburgh police will just tell you to leave a report with their answering machine.
Of course, if the burglar is smart, and breaks into your home between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., then it probably doesn&#8217;t matter even if you have the selfie video of the burglars in your home — because there will be only 20 cops in the entire city who can get to you. So the people ransacking your home can take their time. This has all been announced, publicly, by the city of Pittsburgh. You have to wonder why anyone in the city would bother paying taxes at this point — especially since the government in Pittsburgh created this problem in the first place.
After the George Floyd riots of 2020, the mayor implemented a two-year freeze on all police hiring. That&#8217;s not an overstatement. The mayor at the time, Bill Peduto, just shut down the police academies.
As CBS News reported in 2022, &#8220;The sound of bagpipes graduating a new police class hasn&#8217;t been heard in years.&#8221; To justify this decision, Peduto appeared on NBC News, where for some reason he answered questions from a bunch of college students. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="MWS Clip 02" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QwXm-eVXGlI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It&#8217;s an amazing clip to watch in retrospect. The mayor tells this random college student that emotions are very high post-George Floyd. He recognizes that everyone&#8217;s not exactly thinking rationally. But instead of suggesting that maybe it&#8217;s a bad idea to shut down police academies, he basically issues a threat. He says that &#8220;police reforms&#8221; — by which he means gutting the police department — are going to happen one way or the other. The only thing the police union can do is get on board to minimize the damage, on the road to creating this utopia in Pittsburgh. Four years later, we see exactly what that utopia looks like.
If you listen to officials in Pittsburgh, they&#8217;ll offer another excuse for the breakdown of law and order in their city. They&#8217;ll say they simply can&#8217;t afford police officers. They&#8217;ll tell you that tax revenues are down because, post-COVID, a lot of downtown office space is vacant. The value of the buildings has plummeted. That&#8217;s true, to an extent. The city has been taking in less revenue because of lockdown policies, which were implemented by the city of Pittsburgh. But as an explanation for why there are no police in Pittsburgh anymore, it doesn&#8217;t make any sense. You can take one look at Pittsburgh&#8217;s budget and come to the conclusion that there&#8217;s a lot of waste that could be trimmed in order to put more officers on the street.
For example, let&#8217;s take a look at Pittsburgh&#8217;s fiscal year 2022 operating budget. There&#8217;s more than $700,000 budgeted for salaries for something called the &#8220;Office of Equity.&#8221; In all, the office&#8217;s budget exceeds a million dollars. Among other things, that taxpayer money is used to pay an &#8220;executive director&#8221; for the &#8220;gender equity commission,&#8221; who makes $76,000. It includes a &#8220;chief equity officer&#8221; making $120,000. It also includes unspecified money for &#8220;immigration engagement,&#8221; so that when people arrive in Pittsburgh from Haiti, they know where to file for welfare benefits. And by the way, it&#8217;s not just the &#8220;Office of Equity&#8221; at Pittsburgh that employs equity officers. The office of the city clerk also has an &#8220;equity, diversity, and inclusion policy analyst,&#8221; who makes something like $62,000 a year.
There&#8217;s also millions of dollars for the office of city planning, including hundreds of thousands of dollars devoted to saving the climate. That includes tens of thousands of dollars for so-called &#8220;climate resilience analysts,&#8221; like this woman:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Climate Action Plan 3.0" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VcUqkRhYV6E?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
That video is from several years ago. Not to spoil anything, but the city of Pittsburgh&#8217;s &#8220;climate action plan&#8221; has not done anything to address alleged climate change in any way. We know that because, even if you removed the entire city of Pittsburgh from the planet — which, as a Baltimore Ravens fan, I wouldn’t object to nothing about the climate would change. Even using the most unhinged, eco-nutcase model you can find, there is no conceivable way that the city of Pittsburgh can &#8220;address climate change.&#8221; But they hired useless employees like this person anyway, to categorize all of Pittsburgh&#8217;s various &#8220;greenhouse gas emissions.&#8221; Apparently that was more important than hiring police officers, in a city that&#8217;s down to fewer than two dozen cops in the middle of the night.
And this is just scratching the surface. Pittsburgh also has an “LGBTQIA+ Commission,&#8221; which was budgeted tens of thousands of dollars a year. That commission has apparently done nothing in three years. According to the outlet Public Source:
<blockquote>Pittsburgh’s LGBTQIA+ Commission, created in 2020 by former Mayor Bill Peduto, started with the promise of action on behalf of the queer community of Pittsburgh. Three years later, external displays of action have been on the sparse side — even at the admission of some of its members. &#8230; While some fruitful conversations have been held to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the city and the commission has made strides on developing its internal structure, the commission’s 20 meetings thus far have lacked public engagement and it hasn’t conducted a single study.</blockquote>
This is a commission that was established around the time that the police academies were closed. And they&#8217;re completely dysfunctional. They&#8217;ve wasted all that time and money. It goes without saying that the city could shut all of these &#8220;equity&#8221; initiatives down without causing any harm to any resident of the city of Pittsburgh. If they had done that, they could&#8217;ve saved millions of dollars over the past three years. And when you&#8217;re down to 20 police officers, millions of dollars is a lot of money. It can double the size of your police force. But instead of cutting all of this garbage, the leaders of Pittsburgh chose to cut policing, and fund &#8220;equity&#8221; instead.
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One of the many ironies here is that &#8220;equity&#8221; entails an obsessive concern with &#8220;safety.&#8221; Leftists are always telling us that certain groups are &#8220;unsafe&#8221; and how we need to make them feel safer at every opportunity. But they always mean &#8220;safety&#8221; in some kind of esoteric, ambiguous sense. Actual practical, physical safety isn&#8217;t valued at all — at least not the safety of the average family affected by this insanity.
This has gone on for years, and major cities have become much more dangerous as a result. It&#8217;s so bad that Taco Bell just had to close all of their indoor dining facilities in Oakland. That&#8217;s a pretty stark level of civilizational decline, when you can&#8217;t even keep Taco Bell open.
But very soon, Pittsburgh will reach an even deeper level of decay. Residents won&#8217;t be worried about climate change, or LGBTQ justice. Instead, they&#8217;ll be worried about their safety, in the literal sense. That&#8217;s because, three years after Pittsburgh&#8217;s mayor promised &#8220;reforms,&#8221; change has finally arrived. And particularly between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., everyone living in Pittsburgh will know exactly what that change looks like.

Shooting At Pittsburgh House Party Leaves 9 Injured And 2 Dead

The City Of Pittsburgh Takes ‘The Purge’ As An Instruction Manual

The City Of Pittsburgh Takes 'The Purge' As An Instruction Manual

Crime

Haiti

Pittsburgh

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted five former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/memphis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memphis</a> police officers with federal civil rights conspiracy and obstruction charges connected to the murder of Tyre Nichols earlier this year.
&#8220;Tyre Nichols should be alive today,&#8221; Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department&#8217;s Civil Rights Division said in a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/five-former-memphis-police-officers-charged-federal-civil-rights-conspiracy-and-obstruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release</a>. &#8220;It is tragic to see a life cut short at 29, with so many milestones unmet, so many words unsaid, so much potential unfulfilled.&#8221;
Emmitt Martin, Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills, Justin Smith, and Demetrius Haley — the ex-cops named in the indictment — face four charges each, including excessive force and failure to intervene, deliberate indifference, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice through witness tampering in federal court, according to the Justice Department.
Mike Stengel, a Memphis lawyer representing Haley, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/federal-grand-jury-indicts-five-former-officers-involved-in-tyre-nicholss-death-71fd4ef7?mod=e2li" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal that his client would plead not guilty.
Blake Ballin, a lawyer for Mills, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/us/politics/tyre-nichols-memphis-officers-federal-indictment.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times in a statement that his client &#8220;maintains his innocence.&#8221;
William Massey, a lawyer for Martin, told the outlet that his client would plead not guilty and attempt to release more footage about what led to the initial stop.
Lawyers for the other defendants have not made public comments.
Nichols, a black 29-year-old FedEx worker, died on January 10, three days after a brutal beating captured on camera showed the former officers kicking, punching, and tasing him that stemmed from an attempted arrest during a traffic stop for suspected reckless driving.
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Nichols was subdued, but then he fled before being recaptured minutes later, and police allegedly kicked and punched him multiple times. Nichols later died at a hospital, and his death was later reported as a homicide due to blunt-force trauma, according to a medical examiner&#8217;s report reviewed by Nichols&#8217; family through their attorneys, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/former-memphis-police-officers-charged-death-tyre-nichols-face-federal-indictment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The five officers were fired and subsequently charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and other charges in a separate case in Tennessee. The defendants pleaded not guilty in February to second-degree murder and additional charges in connection to Nichols&#8217; death.
All five former officers were members of a so-called crime-fighting unit with the Memphis Police Department. Although the officers charged in Nichols&#8217; death were all black, and their special unit was disbanded, activists have taken to blaming &#8220;systemic racism.&#8221;
If convicted on the federal indictment, the former police officers could face up to life in prison for the first two counts and 20 years in prison for counts three and four, according to the Justice Department.
Attorneys for Nichols&#8217; family <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/memphis-police-federal-charges-tyre-nichols-death-rcna104699" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NBC News in a statement that the federal indictment &#8220;gives his family hope as they continue to grieve his loss and inspire change in his honor.&#8221;
The federal indictment comes after the Justice Department announced two months ago that the federal agency would launch a civil rights investigation into the Memphis Police Department after more reports emerged of officers using excessive force.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

Rev. Al Sharpton Holds Funeral For Tyre Nichols In Memphis

Five Former Memphis Police Officers Indicted On Federal Charges In Connection To Tyre Nichols Death

Department of Justice

Police Brutality

U.S.

Is it a coincidence that select cities are experiencing spikes in violent crime in the wake of the “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/report/progressive-prosecutors-sabotage-the-rule-law-raise-crime-rates-and-ignore">progressive prosecutor</a>” movement? Hardly. Their policies encourage lawlessness, harm law-abiding residents (especially minorities), drive businesses out of cities, and demoralize the police by treating them like criminals.
These prosecutors claim otherwise, of course. They insist that their decision to not prosecute entire categories of crime; their reluctancy to ask for bail; their refusal to add sentencing enhancements; their decision to release hardened, convicted felons from prison; their decline to prosecute violent juvenile offenders in adult court; and their disregard of those who commit shoplifting, drug possession, and prostitution – among other crimes – reflect sound policies that have not contributed to the recent spikes in crime.
They’re lying. Let’s take a look at the facts:
Crime rates, including violent crime rates, have had an overall <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/">drop</a> in the last 30 years, yet incarceration rates peaked in 2008 – long before George Soros or his “reform” prosecutors came along. Why? Because genuinely progressive prosecutors, working with other stakeholders, created domestic violence courts, drug courts, veterans courts, family justice centers, and thousands of other alternatives to incarceration that are compassionate, create accountability, and provide opportunities with the right incentives for defendants to recover their lives by changing their thinking and behaviors. If someone refuses to complete these programs, though, these prosecutors can still seek incarceration.
Violent crime is geographically and demographically concentrated in inner cities, many of which are presided over by rogue prosecutors, where minority members of their communities are disproportionately victimized, including constituting a majority of homicide victims. As Rafael Mangual of The Manhattan Institute notes in his recent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Justice-Decarceration-Depolicing-Wrong-ebook/dp/B09NPFH2VT">book &#8220;Criminal (In)Justice</a>,&#8221; “while black people constitute 13.4% of the population, they made up more than 53% of the nation’s homicide victims in 2020.” In other words, the policies of these prosecutors are harming the very individuals they are supposed to be helping.
To truly help those individuals – and communities as a whole – these prosecutors should seek appropriate bail and prison sentences for dangerous defendants.
The idea that appropriately long prison sentences won’t help protect communities is nonsense. Studies show that the longer the prison sentence, the lower the recidivism rate. In fact, the <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/">United States Sentencing Commission</a> recently released a <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/length-incarceration-and-recidivism-2022">report</a> which found that “the odds of recidivism were lower for federal offenders sentenced to more than 60 months incarceration compared to a matched group of offenders receiving shorter sentences&#8230;[and] the odds of recidivism were approximately 29% lower for federal offenders sentenced to more than 120 months incarceration.” The authors also found that the “odds of recidivism were approximately 18% lower for offenders sentenced to more than 60 months up to 120 months of incarceration.”
When violent criminals are not required to post bail, there are also increases in crime. That’s simply common sense. Moreover, in an <a href="https://dc.law.utah.edu/scholarship/194/">academic paper</a> on the subject, two law professors analyzed the Cook County Bail Reform Study, which supposedly proved that lax bail laws do not impact the crime rate. The authors found that, contrary to the Study’s findings, the “bail reform” changes in Cook County “appear to have led to a substantial increase in crimes committed by pretrial releasees in Cook County,” and the “number of released defendants charged with committing new crimes increased by 45%.” Worse yet, “the number of pretrial releases charged with committing new violent crimes increased by an estimated 33%.”
No wonder the public is souring on these rogue prosecutors’ radical policies and the havoc they wreak. Voters in liberal San Francisco recently removed rogue DA Chesa Boudin from office. His successor has <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/gascon-recall-effort-takes-big-step-forward-los-angeles">pledged</a> to hold criminals accountable while still offering diversionary treatment programs like drug court to appropriate individuals—something prosecutors have been doing for many, many years.
Ironically, after voters recalled Boudin, one of George Soros’s representatives objected to the Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/soros-stiff-arms-chesa-boudin-after-san-francisco-voters-kick-him-to-curb/">calling</a> Boudin a “George Soros darling” in an attempt to put distance between Soros and the failed DA.
A similar issue occurred when we wrote about Baltimore’s now-defeated (and federally indicted) rogue prosecutor <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/meet-marilyn-mosby-the-rogue-prosecutor-wreaking-havoc-baltimore">Marilyn Mosby</a>. A Soros representative reached out and objected to our characterization of Mosby as a Soros-backed prosecutor, since he never directly contributed to her campaign, even though she attended numerous trips paid for by Soros-funded or inspired groups.
The rogue prosecutor movement operates under two principles: (1) that the entire criminal justice system is racist and (2) that the only way to address this supposed racism is to reverse, engineer, and dismantle the current system by electing pro-criminal, anti-victim zealots into office. Flush with cash or support from George Soros and his like-minded wealthy friends, candidates like George Gascon (Los Angeles), Larry Krasner (Philadelphia), Kim Foxx (Chicago), Kim Gardner (St. Louis), and others have been elevated into office and have imposed their pro-criminal agendas on an unsuspecting electorate. The consequences have been predictable and deadly.  
Prosecutors are the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. Our nation’s 2,300 or so elected district attorneys have a solemn duty to enforce the law and to do so fairly, compassionately, and without favor. This shouldn’t be a Left or Right, blue or red, Democrat or Republican issue. Either you support law and order and equality under the law, or you back a radical social experiment that, so far, has led to utter chaos and misery.
These are the facts.
Zack Smith is a Legal Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Charles D. Stimson, a senior legal fellow at Heritage, manages the think tank’s National Security Law Program.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Interior of courtroom

Rogue Progressive Prosecutors Promote Lawlessness Not Reform

Bail Reform

District Attorneys

Heritage Foundation

Prisons

prosecution

With <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-police-officers-fleeing-in-unprecedented-numbers-a-win-for-defund-the-police-movement">departures</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/us/police-retirements-resignations-recruits.html">happening</a> against the backdrop of rising crime rates in major American cities and activists calling for defunding the police, departments across the country are now experiencing staff shortages. Now, as officers continue retiring en masse, police departments are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-suffering-officer-shortage-cant-find-recruits-people-dont-want-to-be-the-police">struggling</a> to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/philadelphia-sees-looming-police-shortage-as-officers-file-for-retirement-and-young-people-arent-signing-up">attract</a> enough new recruits, and some are even being <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_d7a5d976-0ddb-11ed-8000-4b7a72191d9c.html">forced</a> to restructure in order to respond to 911 calls.
While <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/philadelphia-police-shortage-worsening-hundreds-retiring-20220819.html">Philadelphia</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-than-200-seattle-police-officers-quit-citing-anti-police-climate">Seattle</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lapd-detective-compares-city-to-the-purge-we-dont-think-we-can-keep-you-safe">Los Angeles</a>, and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-police-crime-statistics-staffing-resignation-retirements">Chicago</a> stand out as cities hit the hardest by this mass exodus, nearly every major American city has experienced similar shortages. If you threw a dart at a map of the United States, you’d likely land close to a city dealing with short-staffed police departments and rising crime rates.
In response, police departments across the country are paying out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fund-the-police-portland-unrest-leads-to-record-overtime-for-more-than-a-dozen-cops">more overtime</a> to make up for staffing shortages and <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-911-calls-response-time-20220215.html">restructuring</a> to keep response times up while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-police-no-longer-allowed-to-chase-criminals-over-minor-offenses">prioritizing</a> violent crime over other offenses such as drugs or theft. Cold case investigators and officers who typically work in outreach and community programs are being <a href="https://www.localsyr.com/news/local-news/syracuse-police-temporarily-reassign-officers-to-patrol-division-due-to-historically-low-staffing-numbers/">reassigned</a> and placed back on the streets.
High trafficked and high crime areas are, of course, prioritized, and officers are kept in those areas; however, criminals are still taking advantage of law enforcement being stretched thin. Despite their best efforts, crime is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/six-cities-pace-pass-violent-crime-2022">continuing to rise</a> in major cities across the U.S.
A catastrophic <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009578809/cops-say-low-morale-and-department-scrutiny-are-driving-them-away-from-the-job">drop in morale</a> seems to be the biggest driver of the police exodus. After the COVID pandemic began in March 2020, many state and local governments adopted policies that put criminals back on the street within days of being arrested in order for jails to <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/pandemic-inspires-new-push-shrink-jails-and-prisons">remain less crowded</a>. Police in New York City were <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/04/meet-the-shoplifter-with-101-arrests-and-let-go-almost-every-time/">arresting</a> the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/career-criminals-rack-up-nearly-500-arrests-since-ny-bail-reform-began/">same criminals</a> for different crimes within weeks – or sometimes even days – of each other in extremely frustrating cycles.
Then, in May of that year, almost every single major city in America was rocked by protests and riots over the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter activists led massive demonstrations that sparked hundreds of violent riots and gave momentum to a movement for defunding the police.
Progressive leaders in cities such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-minneapolis-plan-to-defund-the-police-collapses-city-council-members-regret-making-pledge">Minneapolis</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/portland-among-u-s-cities-adding-funds-to-police-departments">Portland</a>, and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0b1ade8e-18cd-43a1-967f-5328ba2053dc">Los Angeles</a> initially embraced the reforms and cut police department funding. These funding cuts and the Defund the Police messaging signaled to many officers that their elected leaders no longer supported them.
This loss of hope in elected officials has produced a startling shortage in police departments across America. The <a href="https://www.policeforum.org/workforcesurveyjune2021">Police Executive Research Forum</a> conducted a study of nearly 200 police departments last year and measured the changes in hiring, resignations, and retirements. Researchers polled police departments on how those statistics changed in the year following the onset of the pandemic compared to the year before, and found that hiring across those police departments fell by a relatively modest 5%. Resignations, on the other hand, increased 18%. Retirements, though, were the biggest blow of all, jumping a staggering 45%. The study acknowledged that smaller departments may have skewed the previously noted statistic, but, even if all the departments with less than 500 officers were excluded, the retirement rate still jumped 27%.
The police shortage, paired with a rise in crime, seems to be feeding a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miv_ti5KR9U">snowball effect</a>:
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/put-the-guns-down-activists-call-for-peace-as-philadelphias-homicide-rate-continues-to-outpace-deadliest-year-on-record/">Philadelphia, Pennsylvania</a> hit a record number of homicides last year, and it’s on pace to break that record again this year. Additionally, the city is <a href="https://metrophiladelphia.com/cops-combat-violent-crime-as-ranks-dwindle/">down about</a> 550 officers under pre-pandemic levels, and over 800 more officers are on medical leave or restricted duty.
In <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10908921/NYPD-staffing-crisis-city-jeopardy-union-officials-say.html">New York City</a>, the crime rate has jumped nearly 40% this year, and the city’s police officers are leaving en masse. About 1,600 have left the force already this year, well over 400 more than the number that left the police department in all of last year.
In <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/article_5ffa853c-0a04-11ed-9285-6be02e4e976d.html">New Orleans, Louisiana</a>, “fewer than 1,000 officers remain after a <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_0aca501e-8b98-11ec-93fe-c73c3ae4ff61.html">net loss of one in six officers</a> since the start of last year. More than 90 have left the force this year as of early July, according to police officer groups. That’s about the same number who resigned, retired or were fired in all of 2020.” New Orleans police officials and Mayor LaToya Cantrell <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0kmZIG3fEg">admonished the media</a> for making their police recruitment more difficult and stated that their priorities are “retention, recruitment, resources.”
<a href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2022/05/05/chief-responds-las-cruces-police-officers-association-releases-scathing-letter/9661087002/">Las Cruces, New Mexico</a> was down to 77% of its max operating forces as of June 2021.
In <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2022/01/push-to-hire-retired-portland-police-officers-falls-short-only-2-of-81-express-interest.html">Portland, Oregon</a>, only two recently retired officers, among the 81 contacted by Police Chief Chuck Lovell, have expressed interest in helping fill vacancies for Portland police under the city-approved <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/09/mayor-calls-for-more-money-this-fall-to-rehire-police-officers-expand-portland-street-response-prepare-for-body-cameras.html">retire-rehire program</a>. Chief Lovell urged retired officers to consider returning in a letter, acknowledging that those who have retired since August 2020 left “at a time of great despair for the Bureau and the City of Portland.”
In <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/asheville-police-departments-staffing-deficit-has-cost-246m-overtime-pay-since-2020-taxpayers-chief-david-zack">Asheville, North Carolina</a>, Police Chief David Zack stated, “We really saw this towards the middle and end of 2020 when we started to see the mass exodus of officers.” He continued: “It’s been pretty steady on a monthly basis where we’re about 40% down of our sworn staff.”
According to <a href="https://www.fox9.com/news/court-orders-minneapolis-to-employ-a-minimum-of-731-police-officers">Minneapolis, Minnesota’s</a> city records, “MPD’s sworn ranks reached a low of 614 officers in early May, down from more than 900 in early 2020.”
In the city of <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-police-department-shortage-staffing-sfpd-chief-william-scott/12094352/">San Francisco, California</a>, police are down by about 300 officers, “meaning fewer police on the streets, longer response times for critical crimes and little or no time to interact with the public.”
In <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-police-department-officer-shortage-crime-spike/">Chicago, Illinois</a>, according to police, “There are 296 academy recruits right now – with a new class of about 85 to 90 starting June 1. They are not making up for the numbers lost quite yet.” Chairman of the Chicago Police Foundation Board of Directors Richard Simon, in defense of officers, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCPYOxnywoI">stated</a>, “These are every mother’s son and daughter that put on the uniform of our country. These aren’t bad people; these are great people. These are American heroes.”
There is a heightened need for cities to get a handle on police officer shortages before things become much worse.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Police Shortages Across The Country

‘Catastrophic Drop In Morale’: How Progressives Created An Unprecedented Police Exodus

Chicago

LAPD

Minneapolis

New York Police Department (NYPD)

Philadelphia

San Francisco

On Tuesday, July 26, 2021, the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Police departments <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/28/philadelphia-police-department-retains-state-accreditation-but-issues-may-linger/">nearly</a> had their state accreditation <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/2022-07-01/pittsburgh-police-accreditation-threatened-by-law-to-scale-back-traffic-stops">revoked</a>. This all came to a head because they enacted policies that attempted to push back on municipal ordinances and state laws to reduce traffic stops, which were <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2021-12-16/pittsburgh-city-council-advances-bill-to-prevent-police-from-making-minor-traffic-stops">characterized</a> as “an effort to prevent police stops that could turn deadly for Black and brown people.” In Philadelphia, the “<a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/03/20/city-of-philadelphia-hobbles-police-with-dangerous-new-ordinance/">Driving Equality Bill”</a> was passed in 2021, prompting Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw to comply with Mayor Jim Kenney’s executive order 6-21, restricting officers from making traffic stops to enforce eight sections of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code.
In April, the <a href="https://www.psp.pa.gov/About-PSP/Pages/Pennsylvania-Law-Enforcement-Accreditation-Commission-.aspx">Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission (PLEAC)</a> <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/2022-07-01/pittsburgh-police-accreditation-threatened-by-law-to-scale-back-traffic-stops">sent a letter</a> to Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw and then-Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert to notify them that their enacting of official department policies to comply with municipal ordinances that attempt to supersede the Pennsylvania vehicle code means that their departments “are no longer in full compliance with the state’s Accreditation Program and Standards.” 
On July 26th, the board met and scheduled separate hearings for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh leading to votes on their accreditation status. 
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Outlaw and her legal advisor, Inspector Healy, made a case that slightly differed from PLEAC’s interpretation. Their <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-union-fop-sues-traffic-stop-law-20220223.html">municipal ordinance</a> merely downgraded eight sections of the vehicle code from primary violations &#8211; where an officer can make a stop on observation &#8211; to secondary ones in which a citation can be issued once a stop for another offense was initiated (such as a seat belt violation). Commission members, who are all acting law enforcement chiefs throughout the state and casted a 10-8 vote, had originally considered a 90-day stay on the department’s status. However, several board members told local news outlet <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/28/philadelphia-police-department-retains-state-accreditation-but-issues-may-linger/">Broad + Liberty</a> under a condition of anonymity that they were voting to allow the department a 90-day waiver, but they had voiced their belief that the City of Philadelphia was not in compliance.
According to board members, the Pittsburgh Police delegation did not show up at the meeting. Therefore, their accreditation status still remains in jeopardy.
In gaining <a href="https://pcpa.memberclicks.net/accreditation-home">PLEAC Accreditation</a>, police agencies have to comply with <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/21/exclusive-philadelphia-police-to-lose-its-accreditation/">standard 1.1.1</a>, which requires:
<blockquote>“A written directive requiring all law enforcement personnel, prior to performing their sworn duties, to take and subsequently abide with an Oath of Office to support, obey and defend the constitution of the United States and the Pennsylvania Constitution and the laws of Pennsylvania and the governmental subdivision and that he/she will discharge the duties of the office with fidelity. 
Newly hired law enforcement officers, in a manner prescribed by the agency, shall also acknowledge that they will uphold, obey and enforce the law without consideration to a person’s race, color, sex, religious creed, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, handicap or disability.”</blockquote>
PLEAC Accreditation Program Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, James Adams, <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/21/exclusive-philadelphia-police-to-lose-its-accreditation/">stated</a> that the Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner and Accreditation Manager were sent the April letter advising them that “it came to the attention of the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission (PLEAC) that with the enactment of City Code § 12-1700, <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/15/philadelphia-passes-bill-barring-cops-from-minor-traffic-stops/">Driving Equality</a> law, Executive Order 6-21 Philadelphia Police Department is no longer in full compliance with the Accreditation Program and Standards.” 
This is due to the commission&#8217;s standards requiring the city to have “a written directive requiring all law enforcement personnel to support, obey and defend the constitution of the United States and the Pennsylvania Constitution and the laws of Pennsylvania.”
PLEAC Board member, Chief Patrick Molloy of the Abington Township Police Department <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/28/philadelphia-police-department-retains-state-accreditation-but-issues-may-linger/">said</a>, “The ordinance itself is not in compliance with PLEAC standards. This prohibits police officers from the type of proactive policing that results in a reduction of crime and an improvement of quality of life.” 
“At a time when police reforms are requiring police departments to be more accountable and professional, this ordinance concedes that police officers are incapable of applying the law without consideration to race, which is why it’s not in compliance with our oath and with accreditation standards.” 
By passing these ordinances, James Adams <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-police-department-state-accreditation/">argued</a> that the Cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are trying to supersede constitutionally legislated state law with municipal ordinances, putting law enforcement officers at odds with their oath of office, by barring them from enforcing eight sections of the state’s vehicle code. 
Had the Pittsburgh Police Chief or Philadelphia Police Commissioner and their staff pushed back on these ordinances or come up with a creative solution &#8211; such as allowing officers to make stops but only issue written warnings as opposed to fines for these minor issues &#8211; these departments’ accreditations might not be in jeopardy.
“The PLEAC solicitor has verified that, by law, a first-class city [Philadelphia] or second-class city [Pittsburgh] does not have the authority to supersede state law.” <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/21/exclusive-philadelphia-police-to-lose-its-accreditation/">said</a> Adams. 
<a href="https://twitter.com/aweisman1cesaid/status/1287014311731265542">Max Weisman</a>, communications director for Philadelphia City Council member <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/stop-and-frisk-philadelphia-isaiah-thomas-20220719.html">Isaiah Thomas</a> who sponsored Philadelphia’s Driving Equality Law, issued the following statement to <a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/28/philadelphia-police-department-retains-state-accreditation-but-issues-may-linger/">Broad + Liberty</a>: “Our bill simply reclassifies eight individual vehicle code violations as secondary violations.” Weisman continued, “It is the same method of enforcement of an officer noticing a driver without a seatbelt — it is a violation that can be enforced but cannot be the primary reason for a stop.”
To back up the data supporting Council member Thomas’s claims that these traffic stops targeted black and brown drivers, Weisman wrote that “there was a plethora of data that was included around this bill — data and lived experience is at the heart of Driving Equality.” Weisman reported that the Defenders Association of Philadelphia derived their analysis of data from the Philadelphia Police on traffic stops.
Weisman further remarked that “Driving Equality (and the Executive Order) passed with a complimentary data bill that will serve as an audit of Driving Equality. We believe in this model but are closely monitoring, alongside a Driving Equality Accountability Group, traffic stops to ensure this bill is in fact achieving its goal (of modifying the stops that promote discrimination while keeping the stops that promote public safety).”  When Weisman was requested to detail who is a part of this accountability group, how often they meet, and how members are recruited, Weisman provided a <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/group-monitor-philly-police-car-stop-reforms/">link to a local PBS story</a> and reported that the group “will keep a watchful eye on regulations designed to prevent Philadelphia police from stopping people for minor traffic infractions in the city.” 
The group includes representatives from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, the Abolitionist Law Center, and the Community Bail Fund as well as a pastor, a Villanova professor, and local residents classified as “neighborhood advocates.” The board listed in Weisman’s link states that the law “needs to be carefully monitored to be sure racial equity occurs while also ensuring public safety.” Yet, at the time of this writing, there are apparently no members of the board from the Inspector General, Controller, Police Department, or any trained traffic safety experts from the state police or state Department of Transportation. 
Former Police Chief himself, <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/08/more-than-just-a-police-chief-james-adams-retires-from-upper-allen-twp-after-42-year-career.html">James Adams</a>, acknowledged that officers “regularly use discretion when enforcing minor laws or conducting traffic stops” and noted that police agencies could have internally set those priorities  within the department. However, Adams remarked that “to craft an ordinance that prohibits officers from enforcing the law or being able to make lawful stops that can save lives is what puts Philadelphia and Pittsburgh out of compliance.”
For his part, Adams noted Council Member Thomas’ concerns, remarking that the “PLEAC wanted to review data proving that the Philadelphia police traffic enforcement policies target people of color for enforcement — and more specifically, how the Driving Equality ordinance would address such a problem while preserving public safety.”
“How does this bill actually correct the problem of bias as its proponents suggest?” Adams questioned. “How does prohibiting officers from enforcing these 8 sections of the vehicle code somehow solve the issue of racial disparity?”
Police Departments can operate without state or <a href="https://www.calea.org/">national</a> accreditation &#8211; but at added cost to local taxpayers.
<a href="https://broadandliberty.com/2022/07/21/exclusive-philadelphia-police-to-lose-its-accreditation/">Broad + Liberty</a> noted: “Independent law enforcement accreditation includes review of department policy, institution of best practices, annual reporting, and an independent external audit conducted every three years. One of the big drivers of this process is the reduction of operational risk and loss control, as comparative statistical reviews conducted over the last three decades show a positive correlation between accreditation and a reduction in liability and worker’s compensation claims.”
Further, by gaining accreditation, “agencies can improve their policies, training, and transparency to effectively defend themselves against lawsuits, reduce substantiated citizen complaints, equip command staff with a proven management system, and allow agencies an independent – externally vetted change management and self-audit system.”
Additionally, “in pushing the Philadelphia Police Department to comply with PLEAC standards a decade ago, [then-Commissioner] Ramsey negotiated a $1,500 bonus for each member of the department to meet accreditation standards” at a cost of nearly $10M in taxpayer revenue.
Moreover, “without an annual PLEAC accreditation audit due, what measures will the Philadelphia Police have to maintain compliance and show it is transparent in opening their policies, procedures, and operations to a valid third-party review?”
This is why law enforcement leaders and legal professionals need to be consulted in the drafting of any law or enforcement policies that may have implications to existing laws or public safety concerns. Had these departments delayed establishing policies that conflict with state standards, this issue would not have been up for a PLEAC vote. More importantly, given the record homicides recorded in both <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphia/2022/01/10/philadelphia-record-homicides-2021-police">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/health-crime-shootings-violence-pittsburgh-24a2e12ccbf41ccf7360c490c1fee0db">Pittsburgh</a> last year, it may be irresponsible to consider greater restrictions on lawful law enforcement operations. To this, Adams said, “With the rise in crime throughout our nation, why would we prohibit our police from using the lawful tools at their disposal to address it?”
A. Benjamin <a href="https://abmannes.com/">Mannes</a>, MA, CPP served in both municipal and federal law enforcement, leading to his designation as a nationally recognized subject matter expert in security, public integrity, and criminal justice reform. He has served as a consultant and expert witness and as the Director, Office of Investigations for the American Board of Internal Medicine from 2008-2017. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Readers Pass – Mannes – Philly To Lose Police Accreditation16x9 (1)

License And Registration: Philadelphia Cops Caught In The Crossfire Over Traffic Stops

Pennsylvania

The city of Washington, D.C., just tallied its 100th homicide of the year — a threshold typically not crossed until October.
June is the earliest month that tragic record has been broken since 2003, <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/dc-100-homicides-earlier-than-any-year-since-2003/65-da799db4-d5b5-44ba-96f4-7b917b7aa85e">according</a> to a local CBS affiliate. D.C. Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton recently <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/dc-100-homicides-earlier-than-any-year-since-2003/65-da799db4-d5b5-44ba-96f4-7b917b7aa85e">claimed</a> that the city&#8217;s recent &#8220;police reform&#8221; is to blame for the rise in homicides, among other crimes.
“This increase in crime is due to the DC Council’s implementation of misguided ‘police reform’ legislation,” Pemberton told the outlet.
In 2020, in wake of the George Floyd riots and nationwide calls to &#8220;defund the police,&#8221; the D.C. city council <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/defund-police-mpd-black-lives-matter-protests/65-29baa332-d23d-40b3-82e1-6e0e8d8de384">voted</a> to cut millions of dollars from the police department and repurpose that money toward other community efforts. Since then, more than 500 police officers have left or retired from the D.C. police.
&#8220;The Council’s actions have had a chilling effect on professional and responsible policing,&#8221; Pemberton <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/dc-100-homicides-earlier-than-any-year-since-2003/65-da799db4-d5b5-44ba-96f4-7b917b7aa85e">told</a> the press. &#8220;Other major cities that have passed similar legislation have also experienced the mass departure of police personnel and, as a result, surges in crime. While the Council does its business inside a building protected by armed security, police officers in the real world are unable to do the impactful and necessary tasks needed to protect the public and apprehend violent criminals.&#8221;
WUSA9 also <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/dc-100-homicides-earlier-than-any-year-since-2003/65-da799db4-d5b5-44ba-96f4-7b917b7aa85e">reported</a> that in the nation&#8217;s capital, homicides &#8220;in 2022 have increased 16% this year, over last year’s 14% increase. Homicides in Ward 1 are up 166% this year. Robberies citywide are up 32%. And so far this year, there have been nearly 200 carjackings in D.C.&#8221;
Fox News recently <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/major-cities-pace-pass-2021-homicide-halfway-2022">reported</a>, &#8220;Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Atlanta have all seen homicide numbers outpace their mark from 2021 halfway through this year, with Milwaukee seeing the largest spike of the group&#8230;Wisconsin&#8217;s largest city has recorded 96 homicides as of June 17 compared to 77 at this time a year ago, a 24.7% increase.&#8221;
In late June, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that new police officers in the capital will receive a $20,000 signing bonus.
&#8220;We know how critical it is to have a fully staffed and resourced MPD, and that requires us to hire strong talent and to retain experienced officers,” Bowser said while announcing the plan. “These hiring bonuses will help MPD recruit and hire more officers to keep our city safe.”
The plan will take place on an &#8220;expedited&#8221; schedule, The Washington Examiner <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/dc-mayor-unveils-20-000-hiring-bonus-to-recruit-more-police-amid-rise-in-crime">noted</a>.
“We sent the budget to the council in March, and that budget will be available on Oct. 1. But the chief came to me, and he said, ‘Mayor, it is my job to tell you what we need. And what we need is to be able to put those bonuses in place right now so that we are competitive,’” Bowser said. “We have a lot going for us, and I want everybody to understand that this government won’t stop until we drive down violent crime.”

D.C. crime scene

D.C. Homicides Surging, Fastest Rate In Nearly Two Decades

Washington, D.C. Homicides Surging, Fastest Rate In Nearly Two Decades

Defund The Police

George Floyd

Washington D.C.

Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott blasted President Joe Biden for allegedly ripping off key points of his police reform bill to score partisan points.
In a <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-tim-scott-statement-on-bidens-policing-executive-order">statement</a> Wednesday evening, shortly after Biden signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/05/25/executive-order-on-advancing-effective-accountable-policing-and-criminal-justice-practices-to-enhance-public-trust-and-public-safety/">Executive Order</a> establishing a series of strict police reforms, Scott said that Biden took critical pieces of the Executive Order from his own comprehensive police reform legislation, the JUSTICE Act, which stalled in the Senate in 2020 because of Democratic opposition. Scott said Biden&#8217;s Executive Order imposes mandates on local police departments without giving them additional funding to help them comply, setting the departments up for failure.
&#8220;After the radical ‘defund the police’ movement helped create the current crime wave, President Biden is pursuing a partisan approach to many of the exact same policy solutions I proposed in the JUSTICE Act just two years ago,&#8221; Scott said in his statement. &#8220;The fact is Democrats used a filibuster they call racist to block my reforms that they’re now embracing. While my proposal added funding to help local law enforcement comply with higher standards, the Democrats&#8217; proposal sets departments up for failure by issuing unfunded federal mandates. Making it harder for police to do their jobs to the best of their ability should be a nonstarter, yet that’s exactly what the Biden plan does. I’m disappointed that the president who campaigned on unity has once again fallen into the trap of divisive politics.&#8221;
Here are some of the key points of Biden&#8217;s police reform Executive Order, compared with items from Scott&#8217;s <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3985/text#toc-id6758B07C7EB74B6B8A98EBE0CC9B71CE">JUSTICE Act</a>.
<ul>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order instructs the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to convene an interagency working group to examine and reform Federal law enforcement recruiting and training practices, &#8220;with particular attention to promoting an inclusive, diverse, and expert law enforcement workforce.&#8221; In part, the working group must consider &#8220;the merits and feasibility of recruiting law enforcement officers who are representative of the communities they are sworn to serve (including recruits who live in or are from these communities)&#8221;; the JUSTICE Act would have required local law enforcement agencies &#8220;to hire recruiters and enroll law enforcement officer candidates &#8230; who have racial and ethnic demographic characteristics similar to the community.”</li>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order creates a &#8220;National Law Enforcement Accountability Database,&#8221; which includes official records documenting officer misconduct and criminal actions, as well as commendations and awards; Scott&#8217;s legislation would have done the same.</li>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order creates a &#8220;National Use-of-Force Data Collection&#8221; database, which accounts for instances of death or injury due to use of force, and discharges of a firearm, among other items; Scott&#8217;s bill would have done the same.</li>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order bans federal law enforcement chokeholds: the JUSTICE Act would also have banned chokeholds at a federal level and restricted funding for local police departments who did not have a prohibition on chokeholds.</li>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order instructs Federal law enforcement to create clear guidance on use-of-force standards; the JUSTICE Act would also have incentivized training in alternatives to use-of-force and de-escalation training.</li>
<li>Biden&#8217;s Executive Order imposes restrictions on federal law enforcement agencies from enacting no-knock warrants, and requires them to report no-knock warrants carried out; Scott&#8217;s bill would have done the same, for federal, state, and local governments.</li>
</ul>
Scott introduced the JUSTICE Act in June of 2020 in the wake of protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Forty-eight Republican senators co-sponsored the legislation.

Tim Scott

Tim Scott Blasts Biden For Executive Order Ripping Off His Police Reform Bill

Joe Biden

U.S. Senate

President Joe Biden used an executive order on Wednesday to circumvent Congress and unilaterally impose police reforms, blaming Republicans who he said had &#8220;stood in the way of progress.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but Senate Republicans have stood in the way of progress,&#8221; Biden tweeted. &#8220;That&#8217;s why this afternoon, I&#8217;m taking action and signing an Executive Order that delivers the most significant police reform in decades.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’ve called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but Senate Republicans have stood in the way of progress. That’s why this afternoon, I’m taking action and signing an Executive Order that delivers the most significant police reform in decades.
&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1529528850660610048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The White House streamed the event, which included remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris began her comments by sharing her concern for the families of those who were grieving after Tuesday&#8217;s tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and then pivoted — exactly as President Biden had done during his address the night before — to attack the &#8220;gun lobby.&#8221;
&#8220;We must have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and pass reasonable gun safety laws,&#8221; Harris said before bringing the topic around to the executive order at hand.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Happening Now: President Biden signs a historic Executive Order to advance effective, accountable policing and strengthen public safety. <a href="https://t.co/mQf2t5DGBt">https://t.co/mQf2t5DGBt</a>
&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1529556325662969856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Harris went on to outline the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, noting that it had passed the House under Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s leadership and blaming Republicans in the Senate for failing to vote in favor of the measure.
She went on to clarify that the order was not intended to take the place of legislation, adding that there were still more reforms needed that it did not address.
Biden stepped up to speak after Harris, and again began his remarks with an attack on the gun lobby. He then <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-repeats-debunked-claim-that-americans-cant-buy-a-cannon-you-can-absolutely-buy-a-cannon/">repeated the lie</a> he has told in the past about private ownership of cannons at the time the Second Amendment was written.
&#8220;The Second Amendment is not absolute,&#8221; Biden claimed. &#8220;When it was passed, you couldn&#8217;t own — you couldn&#8217;t own a cannon.&#8221;
Biden touted the move again after he signed the order, detailing some of the provisions that were included. &#8220;I just signed an Executive Order that delivers the most significant police reform in decades. It will increase accountability, ban chokeholds, restrict no-knock entries, and more for federal law enforcement officers — and it incentivizes state and local officers to do the same.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I just signed an Executive Order that delivers the most significant police reform in decades. It will increase accountability, ban chokeholds, restrict no-knock entries, and more for federal law enforcement officers — and it incentivizes state and local officers to do the same.
&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1529567016734150657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
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President Biden Signs Executive Order On Accountable Policing & Strengthening Public Safety

Biden Goes Around Congress With Police Reform Executive Order, Blames Republicans

Congress

George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

President Joe Biden has had a terrible few months, with numerous aspects of his agenda getting blocked in congress by even members of his own party. Perhaps needing to show he has accomplished something ahead of the midterm elections, it now appears Biden will sign some executive actions on police reform.
CNBC News <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/biden-plans-executive-action-on-police-reform-to-revive-stalled-issue.html">reported</a> that the president may be planning to sign the executive actions as early as this month, in preparation for February being Black History Month. The outlet noted that the executive actions would follow Biden and Democrats’ failed attempt to federalize voting laws, which they refer to as “voting rights.”
“The focus on police reforms is part of what appears to be a last-ditch effort by the Biden administration to take action on some of the president’s signature initiatives in the run-up to his State of the Union Address on March 1. In addition to voting rights and policing, the White House and congressional Democrats are considering ways to resurrect Biden’s Build Back Better package, either by paring back the legislation or separating it into two bills, according to three sources familiar with the discussions,” CNBC reported.
It is unclear what would be in Biden’s executive actions or how they would differ from what the Department of Justice did last year in further restricting the use of chokeholds and “no-knock” warrants based on some high-profile cases.
A chokehold was used on Eric Gardner after he refused arrest for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. Gardner said he couldn’t breathe 11 times before losing consciousness and was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.
The details surrounding the DOJ’s decision to restrict “no-knock” warrants is murkier, as the state attorney general and police have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kentucky-ag-breonna-taylor-warrant-was-not-no-knock-officers-justified-in-use-of-force">denied</a> that they instituted a “no-knock” warrant when attempting to find Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend. Taylor was killed during that search.
Biden’s planned executive actions appear to be a cynical attempt to woo back black voters as the president’s favorability rating continues to crumble. Last year, the House passed a police reform bill named after George Floyd, who died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in May 2020. The bill stalled in the Senate when a bipartisan group of senators could not come to an agreement.
&#8220;I still hope to sign into law a comprehensive and meaningful police reform bill that honors the name and memory of George Floyd, because we need legislation to ensure lasting and meaningful change,&#8221; Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/22/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-police-reform-negotiations/">said</a> at the time. &#8220;But this moment demands action, and we cannot allow those who stand in the way of progress to prevent us from answering the call.  That is why my Administration has already taken important steps, with the Justice Department announcing new policies on chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and body cameras.&#8221;
As Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-planning-executive-orders-on-police-reform-report">noted</a>, Biden’s proposed executive actions also come after Republicans and some Democrats panned the president’s recent “racially-charged speech urging Senate Democrats to suspend the filibuster to push through his party’s legislation that would overhaul federal election laws.”

President Biden Delivers Remarks On Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

Biden Reportedly Eyeing Executive Orders On Police Reform

Executive Orders

As numerous pundits and politicians are calling for more bipartisanship from Congress, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is ringing the alarm bells on one issue that he says the GOP must show &#8220;moral clarity&#8221; on — winning the war on crime by having a &#8220;law and order&#8221; approach while working to remove every single George Soros-backed prosecutor in the nation.
Cotton called for a renewed effort from the GOP last week in an <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/12/20/recall_remove__replace_every_last_soros_prosecutor_146914.html">opinion piece</a> titled &#8220;Recall, Remove &amp; Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.&#8221; His column came just two days before Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia, a city whose Soros-backed prosecutor has come under fire for his lenient policy on crime.
&#8220;Last year, our nation experienced the largest increase in murder in American history and the largest number of drug overdose deaths ever recorded. This carnage continues today and is not distributed equally,&#8221; Cotton observed. &#8220;Instead, it is concentrated in cities and localities where radical, left-wing, George Soros progressives have captured state and district attorney offices.&#8221;
&#8220;These legal arsonists condemn our rule of law as &#8216;systemically racist&#8217; and have not simply abused prosecutorial discretion, they have embraced prosecutorial nullification. As a result, a contagion of crime has infected virtually every neighborhood under their charge,&#8221; he continued.
Noting that areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Manhattan in New York City all have radical prosecutors, Cotton pointed out that their high crime not just compared to cities America but throughout the entire world:
<blockquote>All of these cities have paid a terrible price for these insane policies. Last year, the number of homicides in Chicago rose by 56%, and more than 1,000 Cook County residents have been murdered in 2021. In New York City, murder increased 47% and shootings soared 97%. In 2020, the murder rate in Baltimore was higher than El Salvador’s or Guatemala’s — nations from which citizens often attempt to claim asylum purely based on gang violence and murder—and this year murder in Baltimore is on track to be <a href="https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/baltimore-city-year-to-date-homicide-count-for-2021">even higher</a>. Murder in Los Angeles rose 36% <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/fbi-murders-2020-cities.html">last year</a> and is on track to rise another 17% <a href="https://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf">this year</a>.</blockquote>
But, the potential 2024 candidate also criticized his own party for &#8220;misguided&#8221; contributions to &#8220;soft-on-crime&#8221; policies such as the bipartisan First Step Act:
<blockquote>In 2018, Republicans passed the pro-criminal First Step Act. That deeply flawed legislation reduced sentences for crack dealers and granted early release to some child predators, carjackers, gang members, and bank robbers. Ironically, this jailbreak bill even provided early release for those who helped prisoners break out of jail.
This misguided push by Republicans to win applause from liberals strengthened the hand of radicals like George Soros. In a political environment where the parties compete for who can be more pro-criminal, the Democrats will always win.</blockquote>
The First Step Act is considered by some in the GOP to be one of President Donald J. Trump&#8217;s signature accomplishments. But Cotton argued that the bill, which shortened the sentencing of &#8220;non-violent&#8221; criminals around the nation, opened the door to additional &#8220;weak-on-crime&#8221; legislation.
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&#8220;As soon as the party of law and order endorses a law like the First Step Act, it surrenders the crime debate,&#8221; Cotton asserted. &#8220;Indeed, instead of running on tough-on-crime platforms, many Republicans championed further leniency towards criminals.&#8221;
The Arkansas senator&#8217;s support for tougher enforcement of the law is nothing new. Cotton, it should be noted, was also one of the only GOP officials to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html">call upon Trump</a> to use the Insurrection Act to quell the unrest during the summer of 2020.
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Tom Cotton Slams GOP’s ‘Misguided’ Support For Criminal Justice Reform, Calls To Remove All Soros-Backed Prosecutors

Criminal Justice

George Soros

A slew of new police reforms in Washington state force police officers to allow suspects to flee crime scenes in many cases, even if they are suspected of committing a violent crime.
Democratic Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a dozen police reform bills into law in May, <a href="https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1338629056103739392">saying</a> &#8220;we have a moral mandate to uproot systemic racism in our society&#8221; and that he believes Washington can become an &#8220;anti-racist state.&#8221;
 The bills, some of which went into effect last week, were passed by the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature.
The spate of new reforms hamstrings cops in their ability to immediately detain violent criminals by requiring that they have “probable cause” to arrest them before they detain them, a much stricter standard than the previous “reasonable suspicion” standard. A police officer may also detain a suspect if the person poses an “imminent threat,” a term that lends itself easily to subjective interpretation after the fact.
Washington’s new laws do allow a cop to ask a fleeing suspect to stop and be detained, but the officer cannot use any force to prevent the suspect from escaping if &#8220;probable cause&#8221; is absent. The laws have been beset by confusion at police departments, but the new rules appear to mandate that even if the person is suspected of murder or rape, the cop cannot forcibly detain him on that suspicion alone. 
Cops are also now required to use the “least amount of physical force necessary” in dealing with a suspect, rather than the previous standard of using &#8220;reasonable&#8221; force, restricting officers even further.
One of the bills drastically restricts when officers are allowed to engage in police car chases, apparently making it easier for officers to chase a drunk driver than a person suspected of committing a murder or sex offense.
Another reform cracks down on so-called “military equipment.” When the law went into effect, police departments in Washington were required to surrender all of their “military equipment,” which included machine guns, armed helicopters, bayonets, and grenades as well as firearms and ammunition of .50 caliber or greater. This had one apparently unintended effect — police had to turn in some of their less lethal weapons that happened to be .50 caliber or greater, including bean bag launching shotguns and foam round launchers. The law effectively stripped Washington’s police departments of several of their less lethal options for responding to violent crime.
The sweeping reforms also ban chokeholds, neck restraints, and “no-knock” warrants, and they restrict the use of tear gas.
In one change that could dramatically affect how police conduct is scrutinized, one of the bills creates a new agency to investigate and charge law enforcement officers statewide. In the past, that type of investigation would normally have been handled by local prosecutors.
Police say they are extremely concerned about how the new reforms will impact crime in their communities as well as the safety of officers. Morale at police departments in Washington has already been plummeting for months.
​​“There&#8217;s a real concern that it could increase crime, and it could increase reckless driving, traffic fatalities,” <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/washington-state-police-reform-bills-confuse-police-in-effect-july/281-d1db250e-a117-4236-b0ba-ff0b964c829a">said</a> Steven Strachan, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC).
Violent crime is already on the rise in Washington. Assaults on officers have increased nearly 7% since 2019. While hate crimes and drug arrests dropped last year, murders have risen nearly 67% since 2016, according to data from the WASPC.
At a press conference on July 22, law enforcement heads from around the state <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PYDj_8YKo8&amp;ab_channel=SpokaneSheriff">said</a> there is a great deal of confusion about how to interpret the reforms. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said that one of his deputies told him the laws had resulted in &#8220;chaos.&#8221; He added that legislators had not consulted with law enforcement leaders at all as they were crafting the bills.
&#8220;And now we hear from legislators that we are overreacting, that we don&#8217;t understand the laws, that we don&#8217;t understand their intent, and you&#8217;re right, we don&#8217;t,&#8221; Knezovich said.
The Washington Fraternal Order of Police (WAFOP) urged the state attorney general to offer more guidance on two of the bills dealing with use of force. 
“What would help most right now is a formal written legal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General so that law enforcement and the community have a clear sense of how the new legislation is to be applied,” the WAFOP <a href="https://wafop.com/news/washington-state-fop-news/washington-fraternal-order-of-police-requests-formal-ag-opinion-on-police-tactics-use-of-force-measures/?id=f33acabd-0cb3-40b2-a476-775c8c1f7800">said</a> in a statement.
The riots that ravaged Seattle last year prompted a wave of police departures, a trend expected to continue in the wake of the new police reforms. Washington already has the lowest ratio of police officers to residents of any state with only 1.7 officers for every 1,000 residents, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/census-state-and-local-law-enforcement-agencies-2008">according</a> to Justice Department figures. The national average is 2.5 police officers per 1,000 residents.
Washington’s new reforms are just the latest in a string of police reforms since the death of George Floyd last summer. Earlier this year, another rule went into effect in the state requiring police recruits to take an eight-hour course on the history of racism and policing. The required curriculum was part of another nine police reform bills Washington passed in April.

police

Washington Cops Forced To Allow Violent Criminals To Flee Crime Scenes After New Police Reforms

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