While governors and mayors echo calls to “defund the police” across the United States, trucking companies don’t seem all that impressed by the social justice virtue signalling. Some have even asserted there may be consequences if it is implemented.
Small business owners are at risk, as they store, transport, and sell valuable goods, rent or own property, and pay insurance for all of this.
Disbanding law enforcement would mean no protection for their businesses (or their lives) from criminals who would profit at their expense.
But some trucking companies are drawing a line in the sand issuing a simple consequence: no police, no deliveries. Mike Kucharski, co-owner of JKC Trucking, told Fox & Friends First that a disbanded police makes an already risky business even riskier.
“Our first priority is to support our drivers and their safety when they are on the road,” said Kucharski. “Defunding the police is a bad idea, because when you’re on the road, you’re for weeks and days at a time driving 11 hours with valuable cargo. Everybody wants to steal this.”
Truck driving and transportation/material moving are already the top two most dangerous jobs in the United States, Fox Business reports. Meanwhile, 79 percent of drivers say they would not deliver in cities without a police force.
“When you’re tripping over long enough on the road you know there’s no safe place. Violence is everywhere. So, if you’re gonna be having valuable cargo and there’s gonna be no police to rely on, who’s gonna protect our drivers?”
A survey of 258 police departments across the United States, soon to be released, shows that nearly half of them have had budget cuts, mainly in the areas of training and equipment. Meanwhile, both gun violence and violent crime have increased in different parts of the country, USA Today reported.
Another risk for trucking businesses in states where police are defunded is insurance, Kucharski says. It remains a question whether JKC will even have cargo, liability, and fiscal damage coverage while delivering in cities with a diminished police force. While the company has domestic coverage, they may have to buy special insurance for those cities, like when shipping to Canada or Mexico.
“Defunding the police is not the solution,” he adds. “We all have to work together with critical thinking and in finding the solution, the problem during this time of crisis. The government’s been behind the steering wheel, and it’s time for small businesses to take back the steering wheel and make the right decisions, to sit down with the politicians. I welcome the politicians to sit down with us.”
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