Vermont Learns a Brutal Lesson About Defunding the Police

Matt Vespa | December 17, 2021 5:35 PM

It happened in New York. It happened in San Francisco. It happened in Minnesota. When you cut the police budgets, bad things happen. Democrat-run cities are experiencing spikes in crime, including homicides. In Chicago, you might as well save your money and fly there to do your Christmas shopping. You can steal whatever you want without consequence. In the most liberal enclaves, the local leaders tested this far-left action item with disastrous results. In Burlington, Vermont, NBC News was shocked that cutting the police budget had severe consequences. It’s not like there wasn’t a body of work that showed this was a very bad public policy move.

Our friends at Newsbusters clipped the segment:

Correspondent Stephanie Gosk was shocked to discover the “unintended consequences” of cutting the police department’s budget by 30 percent, leaving people feeling unsafe.
“In Burlington, Vermont roll call looks a little different than it used to,” she announced as she began the report. “Often just five officers are on shift for a city of more than 44,000 after Burlington's leaders cut the police force by nearly 30 percent. Essentially imposing a hiring freeze.”
This result came after the network, along with ABC and CBS, engaged in Orwellian doublespeak last summer and tried to tell Americans that “defund the police” didn’t actually mean defunding the police.
“Tonight, across the country, there is a growing movement to defund police departments. But what exactly does that mean? Well, apparently not the same thing to everybody,” wondered anchor Lester Holt on June 8, 2020.
[…]
GOSK: Mark Buchet and his family have owned this home goods store for 35 years. He says the police couldn't respond quickly to disturbances, prioritizing more serious calls. He and his staff felt their absence.
BUCHET: I said, “we don't feel safe in the evenings.” And that --
GOSK: In Burlington, Vermont?!
BUCHET: In Burlington, Vermont.

In New York City, anti-cop Bill de Blasio has been replaced with a former police officer as mayor. In San Francisco, the mayor declared she's going to crack down on the crime wave she created when she cut the police budget last summer. Christmas is all around us now, as is the data that shows going to war with the cops over "woke" talking points that aren't real is just bad governing.