Free Republic

Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes. As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state's sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children tend to congregate, according to a local news report. About 650 of those cases were handled by officers who checked in on the registered sex offenders weekly to ensure they were where they...

Over the last two decades, progressives have established a new consensus on crime. Nonviolent felonies like shoplifting and drug possession should be reclassified as misdemeanours. Cities should defund the police and spend the money on nurses, psychologists and social workers instead. Offenders should have minimal involvement with the justice system — and be kept out of jail wherever possible.But now, rising crime is rapidly undermining the progressive consensus. Homicides rose 30% in 2020, and over two-thirds of America’s largest cities will have had even more homicides in 2021 than in 2020. At least 13 big cities will set all-time records...

Authorities arrested five suspects in Delaware on Wednesday night who were discovered traveling in a vehicle that was carjacked at gunpoint from Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.) hours earlier. Scanlon was one of 125 Democratic sponsors of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which aimed to make it easier for states and localities to replace police officers with social workers and other first responders. The 62-year old congresswoman handed over the keys to her 2017 blue Acura MDX at gunpoint on Wednesday at FDR Park in South Philadelphia. Scanlon was approached by two black men who demanded the...

After Black Lives Matter protesters last year demanded that cities “Defund the Police,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed held a press conference to announce that her city would be one of the first to do exactly that. Breed cut $120 million from the budgets of both San Francisco’s police and sheriff’s departments. A spokesperson for the police officers’ union warned the cuts “could impact our ability to respond to emergencies.” This week, Breed reversed herself in dramatic fashion, announcing that she was making an emergency request to the city’s Board of Supervisors for more money for the police to support...

The uniformed officers had just sat down when staff members asked them to leave because the workers felt uncomfortable about the officers’ weapons, the restaurant said. Three uniformed San Francisco police officers sat down for a meal on Friday at an all-day breakfast restaurant. But it was not long before staff members of the restaurant, Hilda and Jesse, “felt uncomfortable with the presence of their multiple weapons” and “politely asked” the officers to leave, the restaurant said on Instagram on Saturday. That request drew widespread attention, with the San Francisco police chief criticizing the move and hundreds of people leaving...

The FBI is asking for an extra helping this Thanksgiving in tracking down people who were involved in the Capitol riot. The bureau's Chicago field office sent a tweet Thursday, stuffed with hashtags, requesting members of the public consider reporting fellow holiday dinner-goers if they look like someone who may have been involved in the unlawful entry and violence that took place in the nation's capital on Jan. 6. "See this smiling face at your table tonight? The #FBI continues to seek tips about those involved in the violence at the U. S. #CapitolBuilding on #January6th. Call 1-800-CALL-FBI with tips...

Protesters filled streets around the world after George Floyd’s killing. For some, the scars of that summer run deep. Rickia Young, a 29-year-old nurse’s aide, clearly remembers the moment police officers swarmed her car in West Philadelphia last year. She heard one window shatter, then another. Not only was she worried for her own safety, but Young said she feared for her toddler son’s life. Young is among many Americans who say they were severely injured by police in the turbulent months after George Floyd’s death on Memorial Day 2020. Amid what has been called the broadest protests in U.S....

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) — The Oakland police officers union said a toddler’s violent death and a mass shooting over the weekend were tragic consequences of defunding the police department. “Oakland’s sad reality has become back-to-back violent tragedies. A mass shooting and murder Friday. An innocent toddler murdered on Saturday. Followed by another murder that evening,” the Oakland Police Officers’ Association wrote. The toddler, who was just shy of his 2nd birthday, was identified by family members as Jasper Wu.

Ambush shootings of police have jumped 139%, and the top police union blames the anti-law enforcement rhetoric liberal politicians have spewed. The Fraternal Order of Police released new numbers of attacks on men and women in blue, reporting 109 officers have been shot in 86 ambushes. Worse, 281 officers have been shot this year so far and 52 killed by gunfire.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Angela Harrelson points toward a blue angel painted on the pavement, marking the spot where a Minneapolis police officer murdered her nephew George Floyd and ignited a national police reform movement.~~~SNIP~~~On Tuesday, Minneapolis voters get to decide just how different their city's approach to policing should be. A ballot question asks residents whether they want to replace the police department with a new department of public safety, in the first big electoral test of reform efforts sparked by Floyd's May 2020~~~Supporters insist police would remain on their jobs, though perhaps in smaller numbers. They say the change...

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)’s campaign has spent over $130,000 for personal security services for the congresswoman, despite her longtime efforts to defund the police. Reports of the spending surfaced again with the release of campaign spending numbers from the Federal Election Commission. When Bush was asked about security spending, she claimed her safety is separate from people’s claim that police keep the general public safe. “Some critics say that move is hypocritical. What’s your response to those critics?” CBS asked. "They would rather I die? You would rather me die? Is that what you want to see? You want to...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Republican candidate for Minnesota governor Scott Jensen says a mass shooting at a St. Paul bar early Sunday morning shows the idea of defunding the police is “ridiculous.” A woman was killed and 14 people were injured when gunfire broke out at Seventh Street Truck Park just after midnight. Three suspects have been arrested and are being treated at area hospitals for injuries suffered in the shooting. On Facebook, Jensen posted a video of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher driving through the area of the shooting the night before it happened. Fletcher regularly livestreams patrols from his...

As activists mobilized this summer to ask Minneapolis voters to replace their police department, one of the first prominent Democrats to slam the plan was a moderate congresswoman who doesn’t even live in the city. Angie Craig declared it “shortsighted, misguided and likely to harm the very communities that it seeks to protect." She warned that it could push out the city's popular Black police chief. Craig's district covers a suburban-to-rural and politically divided region south of the city, but her willingness to jump into the fight next door highlights the political threat that Democrats like Craig see in the...

As a Minnesota judge is hearing arguments Monday on a ballot measure to replace the Minneapolis Police Department, a new investigative report found that in the months following George Floyd’s death, Minneapolis officers "imposed abrupt changes" of their own by taking a "hands-off approach" to crime. According to an investigative report by Reuters, Minneapolis officers almost immediately stopped conducting traffic stops, as violent demonstrations erupted across the city in response to the viral video showing former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pressed to a handcuffed Floyd’s neck. Records show Minneapolis officers also approached fewer individuals considered suspicious. After analyzing...

Two St. Louis deputies were dismissed last month for working on progressive Rep. Cori Bush’s security detail without permission — days before the “Squad” member defended spending tens of thousands of campaign dollars on private protection while pushing to “defund the police.” St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts told KMOV that he initially warned now-former deputies Tylance Jackson and Maurice Thompson to quit moonlighting as muscle for Bush (D-Mo.) and fill out the proper forms after they accompanied her on a tour of St. Louis jails in April. However, Betts said he was told by Veterans Affairs Police several weeks later...

A fired-up Sen. Cory Booker praised GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville for forcing a vote Tuesday in the Senate on defunding the police, saying he wanted to "hug" his GOP colleague for putting to rest "scurrilous" accusations that Senate Democrats want to strip law enforcement of money. Tuberville, R-Ala., authored an amendment to Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget resolution that would decrease federal funds to localities that defund the police. In teeing up the politically charged vote, Tuberville said in a floor speech that "opposing my amendment is a vote in support of defunding the police and against the men and women...

Activists in Minneapolis are making a second attempt to get rid of the city's police department, more than a year after George Floyd's death at the hands of officers. [snip] More than a year after George Floyd’s death sparked a failed push to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department, activists and several City Council members are trying again, with a well-funded initiative that would ask voters in November whether the department — disparaged by critics for what they say is an enduring culture of brutality — should be dismantled. In its place would be a public safety department that employs a...

@SenatorTimScott Having lived in some of the poorest parts of South Carolina, I can tell you first-hand that the one thing no one living in the communities where I grew up is asking for is defunding the police. Clip ...

<p>On Tuesday afternoon the Centers for Disease Control officially recommended vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors. For children under 12, the CDC wants mask worn for hours inside the classroom.</p><p>"CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place," the guidance states.</p>

Tommy Pigott (@TommyPigott) Tweeted: Here's some of the Democrat-run cities Biden refuses to condemn that are defunding the police: New York Philadelphia Washington, D.C. Baltimore Los Angeles San Francisco Minneapolis Seattle Portland, Oregon Austin, Texas Hartford, Connecticut Oakland, California h