For the Chief of Police in an almost totally Democrat city like Washington, DC, to claim that Democrats in city government are sabotaging his efforts is completely unprecedented. But he said it. Perhaps the Chief, like James Craig in Wisconsin, would think of running for office as a Republican.

FNC: “Washington D.C., police chief Robert Contee said law enforcement officials have issued warnings over the years that the loss of police officers would be problematic for the city, which has seen a recent spike in gun violence following ‘intentional efforts’ to defund his department.

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Earlier in the week, he said the Metropolitan Police Department was down almost 215 officers. In July 2020, as calls to defund the police grew louder following the death of George Floyd, the department had 3,800 officers, he said. By September 2022, the police force is projected to have around 3,460 officers.

In addition, last July, city leaders reduced police department funding by $15 million and issued a hiring freeze. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s 2022 fiscal year budget didn’t include extra funding for the department, though it had more than $40 million for public safety initiatives.”

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“This is something that we’ve been warning about for years,” Contee told press on Friday, “We don’t really have the ability to hire officers right now. We have a defined amount of resources to deal with a very large city that continues to grow.”

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“There’s been intentional efforts to not provide the full resources, in my opinion, the police department needs,” Contee said. “Right now we’re in this budget season. The police department’s budget should have been fully supported…People have asked police to reform. That’s been posed to me for now for a year-and-a-half,” he said. “I’m saying that we have to stretch beyond the police and look at the entire ecosystem to see what other things is everybody doing in the ecosystem to ensure that our communities are safe…It’s not just ‘What are the police doing?’” he added.

“I’m going to give it to you straight … The justice system that we have right now, it is not functioning the way that it should. The courts are not open. That is a fact. Barely open,” the Chief said. “So cases from last year that happened during COVID of violent criminals that have not been disposed of, where do you think those individuals are? They’re in community…We want to help people, but you cannot coddle violent criminals,” he said. “You cannot. You cannot treat violent criminals who are out here making communities unsafe for you, your loved ones … They might not want a job. They might not need services. What they may require is to be off of our streets because they’re making it unsafe for us … If not, then we see more of this.”

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“I’m mad as hell about this, and I hope ya’ll are too,” the Chief concluded. “I don’t want to be afraid for my wife to go somewhere because some knucklehead in our community decided to pull out a gun and fire it. That is unacceptable.”