Leftist activists say Phoenix Police will ‘devastate’ neighborhoods. Oh, please.
Whose values do you support?
Do you support the Phoenix Police, who have looked at the soaring numbers of violent crime across the city and now propose to more aggressively confront criminals?
Or do you support the activists at Poder in Action who want to “defund the police,” “abolish ICE,” “disrupt and dismantle unjust systems” and “determine a liberated future as people of color in Arizona”?
The activists don't like or want the Phoenix Police
At the moment, Poder purports to speak for those high-crime neighborhoods and is dumping all over the police plan to sharply reduce crime where it is most rampant.
"A crime reduction plan that doesn’t prioritize meeting people’s needs isn’t about community safety, it’s about criminalizing people,” said Poder in a written statement. “And the communities that have been the most under-resourced, the communities with the most Black and brown people, are the communities who are going to be devastated by this plan."
Well, OK. Fine. Let’s not “devastate” our neighborhoods with more police officers.
Instead of taking cops and activists' word, let's have a vote
Let’s actually ask those “Black and brown people” Poder claims to represent whether they want a Phoenix Police crackdown on crime or a Poder In Action crackdown on police.
Because if Poder truly represents the people, then the people want no police department at all. Poder is the high-stepping chorus line of the defund-the-police movement.
Their policy position can be easily accommodated, concentrating expensive police resources on parts of the city that actually want police presence and sparing the expense of patrolling places where crime is highest.
With saved resources, we can flood high-crime zones with social workers, who come at half the cost of cops.
Phoenix Police propose to target violent crimes, gun violence
This latest dustup began when Phoenix Police took a look at the violent crime statistics from 2017 to 2022 – murder up 39%, aggravated assault up 14% – and decided they need to more actively confront crime where it is most rampant.
Their plan is pretty outrageous. They propose to:
Reduce the number of violent and property crimes.
Employ more performance metrics in addressing crime.
Raise their visibility in crime-laden hotspots.
Address more aggressively all types of gun violence.
Target “prohibited possessors,” that courts say cannot carry firearms.
Prioritize arrests with an emphasis on dangerous fugitives.
Despicable, isn’t it.
From Phoenix P.D. perspective, that’s how you serve the people in what Poder calls “the most under-resourced” communities:
You stop the bad guys from killing and assaulting them. You make it safe for them to walk outdoors, to do business, to feel secure in their homes.
Name a big city with a police department that doesn't have problems
But Poder could be right. Police may be a greater threat to people in those neighborhoods than the criminals who prey upon them.
Besides, Phoenix Police have a history. They’ve shot a lot of people in recent years and the Justice Department is investigating them.
Let me tell you how it works.
There isn’t a major police department in America that isn't up to its eyeballs with social-justice convulsions and recriminations. Nor is there a big city police department that has been spared a federal investigation sometime in the last 25 years.
Most of those big cities are like Phoenix – controlled by Democrats. If they don't like the way their police departments operate, well they have the power.
But don't listen to me on this. Let the people speak.
I’m guessing they will with authority.
At the height of the 2020 social uprising ignited by the Minneapolis Police murder of George Floyd – an African American man – fully 81% of Black people told a Gallup poll they want the same or more policing in their communities.
Only 19% said they wanted a smaller police presence.
So let’s have a vote here, and if people react the same way they did with Gallup pollsters, the only things growing smaller in Phoenix will be crime and Poder in Action.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Let's vote on whether we back Phoenix cops or 'defund police' leftists
