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Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

In recent weeks there has been a tremendous amount of debate about whether police departments around the country should be “defunded” or not, but what most Americans don’t realize is that it is already happening on a massive scale.  At a time when crime rates are absolutely soaring and civil unrest is raging in major cities across the nation, police budgets are being deeply cut and in some cities there is talk of eliminating police departments altogether.  I knew that a few cities had already made moves in this direction, but I had no idea that it was happening on such a widespread basis. 

According to a report prepared by the Police Executive Research Forum, nearly half of the law enforcement agencies that they surveyed “are reporting that funding has already been slashed or is expected to be reduced”…

Nearly half of 258 agencies surveyed this month are reporting that funding has already been slashed or is expected to be reduced, according to a report slated for release this week by the Police Executive Research Forum, a non-partisan research organization.

Much of the funding is being pulled from equipment, hiring and training accounts, even as a number of cities also are tracking abrupt spikes in violent crime, the report concluded.

And in most cases we are not talking about small cuts.  Police funding in Los Angeles has been reduced by 150 million dollars, and police funding in New York has been slashed by a total of one billion dollars.

Those are staggering numbers.

In Seattle, there had been a proposal to cut police funding by 50 percent, but apparently that wasn’t good enough for some people and so now a measure has been introduced that would completely “abolish the entire Seattle Police Department”…

BREAKING: Seattle City Council moves to abolish the entire Seattle Police Department and replace it with a “civilian led Department of Community Safety & Violence Prevention.”

They want to replace the police force with nonprofit programs and “community-led activities.”

If you live in the Seattle area and you are concerned that in the future you may not have anyone to call if someone breaks into your home, you can rest assured that someone will still be on the other end of the line when you call 911.

But instead of a police officer with a gun responding to your call, you may have a “community safety official” armed with “science” and “reason” come pedaling out to your place on his or her bike to perform a “mental health evaluation” on the individual that you are having a “disagreement” with.

Minneapolis is another major city that is considering doing away with the police entirely, but for now the MPD is still operating.  However, right now they are being completely overwhelmed by a massive crime wave that has erupted in the city, and in a recent email to 3rd precinct residents they told citizens to be “prepared to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet”…

“Be prepared to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet,” the police said in their email, a copy of which was obtained by Alpha News. The email said citizens should listen to criminals and “do as they say.”

The message warned that “some victims have been maced, dragged, assaulted, and some threatened with a gun.”

I don’t know about you, but I would not have been comforted if I had received that email.

Chicago is dealing with an enormous crime wave as well.  At this point, so many people are being gunned down in the city that it is making headlines all over the globe…

Data released on Saturday showed that Chicago saw 440 homicides between January 2020 through the end of June, a 52 percent increase from the same time period last year (which saw 290 homicides). Shooting victims similarly increased by 51 percent (1,480 to 2,240) and shooting incidents themselves rose 47 percent (from 1,210 to 1,783).

In Los Angeles, it is property crime that is making headlines, and the latest numbers show that auto thefts in the city hit an all-time record high last quarter…

A COVID-19-induced recession, with exceptionally high unemployment in Los Angeles, has resulted in record-high auto thefts in 2Q20.

A new report via Crosstown LA, who examined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) data, reveals that 5,744 vehicle thefts occurred between April and June, up 57.7% from the same period last year.

But it really isn’t fair to point out just a couple of cities because the crime wave that we are facing is actually national in scope.

Never before have we seen such a dramatic spike in crime in such a short period of time.  The following comes from Fox News…

A host of other cities — Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle — also saw spikes in shootings and murders, according to public data. “I think it’s just a perfect storm of distress in America,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in July.

In her city, the police department reported a 240 percent increase in murders (from 5 to 17) when comparing a four-week period ending in July 2019 to the same timeframe this year. New York City, meanwhile, saw a 277 percent increase in shootings (from 13 to 49) when observing the year-over-year change for one week in July.

In such an environment, does it really make sense to “defund the police”?

Unfortunately, you and I are not the ones making the decisions, and right now police budgets are being dramatically slashed from coast to coast.

Meanwhile, civil unrest continues to simmer in many of our largest cities.  For example, protesters in Portland just made headlines by burning an American flag and a Bible…

Protesters burned an American flag and a Bible in Portland, Oregon, sparking outrage just as weeks of violent demonstrations seemed to be coming to a close.

For more than 60 days, Black Lives Matters demonstrators, including a “Wall of Moms” and a “Wall of Vets,” have clashed with federal agents in the city, drawing national attention as authorities blasted marchers with tear gas and the civilians at times responded with weapons of their own — such as feces, bleach, bricks or batteries.

Sadly, what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.  The upcoming election certainly has the potential to trigger more protests and more riots, and the severe economic downturn that we are currently experiencing will add fuel to the fire as well.

Everywhere you look, people are angry and frustrated, and our society seems to be coming apart at the seams all around us.

It is at such a moment that politicians all over America have decided to radically cut police funding, and needless to say this is going to have very serious implications for every man, woman and child in the entire country.