Source: Fox News

This just in, Vermont regrets defunding their police force (go figure).

Fox News has more on the story:

A Vermont city is paying the price of slashing its police force by nearly 30% amid the defund the police movement that spread across the country in 2020.

“We’re in a situation that I think nobody wanted us to get to,” Burlington Councilor Zoraya Hightower, who introduced defunding the police force last year, told NBC News.

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Just to give you some numbers, according to NBC News, 30% of the Burlington, Vermont police force was cut by attrition.

Meaning, if a police officer retired or left on their own accord, they weren’t going to try to backfill that position.

Little did the liberals know, they created an even more hostile working environment for police officers.

Leading to more officers leaving than anticipated:

The unintended consequences appeared quickly. Slashing the police force through attrition, which some councilors assumed would take years, instead took months.

Police officers began to leave in droves. Before defunding, Burlington averaged about 95 effective, or active-duty, police officers. Today, the department hovers around 64. Often only five officers are available to patrol at night, said Murad, the police chief. Overtime costs have soared.

“The exit interviews have been pretty clear that it was about a lack of support in a political sense,” Murad said. “And a sense of saying: ‘This is not how I want to serve anymore. I don’t feel valued.’”

Now, the burglary, vehicle thefts, and mental health issues are running rampant:

Certain types of incidents did become more common, however, including burglary, vehicle thefts and mental health issues and overdoses.

It was on Church Street, Burlington’s busy downtown strip, where many of those incidents and the possible impact of defunding seemed most visible.

Sharing the street with other residents and tourists are people struggling with housing instability, mental health and substance abuse — all issues aggravated by the pandemic.

Since the police force shrank, however, officers have had to spend a greater percentage of their time on higher-priority issues and less on quality of life.

The worst part? Business owners and locals alike living in Burlington, are afraid to speak out against this or comment on the negative effects of this for fear of being labeled as “a racist.”

Mark Bouchett, who owns a home goods store on Church Street, said defunding hit many independent business owners hard. Quality-of-life issues stacked up, and he became concerned after several female employees said they felt unsafe walking to their cars at night.

He also said many business owners became “terrified” to raise concerns publicly.

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“If you speak out against defunding the police force, you’re labeled a racist,” he said. “Or at least an idiot that doesn’t understand the problem.”

Since when did pointing out the facts such as: Defunding the police is surely going to increase crime, homicides, burglaries, etc, become racist?

That’s the thing, it’s not racist. It’s wokeism, it’s politicizing everything that doesn’t need to be politicized.

Because, everything woke turns to sh*t.

That’s as simple as it gets and now cities across America are suffering the consequences of allowing such a stupid idea like “defunding the police” to take root in their cities in the first place.

I hope Vermont will become a good reminder for the rest of the cities in this country of what NOT to do.