Cuts to NC Law Enforcement Open Door to Crime
A few days ago, we read the latest news on how a major North Carolina city had suffered from the Left’s efforts to dismantle law enforcement.
Those in the know are aware that Asheville, from its earliest days, was built on tourism. In fact, its minor league baseball team has been known as the Asheville Tourists for more than 100 years.
Tourists don’t take many trips to places they deem unsafe. So when the City of Asheville announced it was taking “targeted steps” to deal with the violent crime that has increased in the city in recent years since police staffing has dropped – it was not a surprise.
The article stated that violent crime in Asheville has surged, with aggravated assaults up “by 21.8%, and armed robberies increased by 20% from 2021 to 2022,” according to Asheville Police statistics. It cited an instance in recent weeks where “a man was slashed in the neck at a bus stop downtown following an altercation with another man over a cigarette, according to police. The incident came a week after multiple armed robberies in the downtown area.”
The rise in crime should really come as no shock since Asheville was one of the leading cities in the country to jump on the “Defund the Police” bandwagon back in 2020. According to the article, Asheville Police Chief David Zack reported last fall “that his department is straining to maintain visibility after more than 100 officers have left since May 2020.”
Especially threatened has been Asheville’s downtown business and tourist district. The City of Asheville’s news release stated that “there are complex circumstances contributing to the safety issues that Asheville is currently seeing downtown and it will take a community response to address these complexities.”
The city’s plan to deal with the increased crime is a “60-day initiative” that will increase “law enforcement presence” downtown, including foot, bike and vehicle patrols and enhanced security in parks. Authorities will also devote attention to keeping downtown clean by removing litter, needles, and biological waste. The city will also increasingly monitor areas in downtown where vagrancy, drug use, and crimes are known to happen more frequently…”
Kind of sounds like San Francisco. Can you imagine owning a small business catering to tourism there and having to put up with that kind of behavior? Of course, the Asheville city leadership admits no cause and effect from their efforts to weaken their police presence to kowtow to liberal protesters and the resulting increase in crime.
Hopefully, Asheville will wake up before it’s too late and stop catering to those who want chaos in their streets and for law enforcement to be emasculated. Asheville is a wonderful city to visit with its scenic beauty and off-beat vibe. It would be sad to see its tourism dollars suffer because it can’t maintain law and order and keep tourists and its own citizens safe.
Most would agree Asheville’s experience is probably an extreme example compared to the rest of the state. But it stands as a warning to other county and city government officials of what can transpire when the main role of government in our society – public safety – is abandoned. As local leaders have cut public safety funds, they have sent a signal to law enforcement that they won’t back them. Retirements are up and new officer recruitment is difficult.
As our world seems to get meaner and we become numb to the violence rising not only in our country’s big cities but even here in North Carolina, it’s sad to see respect for law enforcement and law and order appear to slip away more every day.
