Over the last three decades, law enforcement entities have become increasingly dependent on federal grants to fund their day-to-day operations.
The U.S. Department of Justice office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was born after President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 3355) in 1994. Since that date, the COPS program has distributed approximately $14 billion in grant money to U.S. law enforcement agencies who have or are transitioning toward the inclusion of a COPS program within their agency.
You should think of these grants in the same way we think of federal education dollars. A school district receives federal dollars in exchange for adopting federally directed teaching objectives and initiatives.
In both scenarios, the lessons of what works locally begins to take a backseat to what the pointy heads in Washington think will work nationally. In a nutshell, the law enforcement chain of command is slowly forced to incorporate some external voices in its decision-making and prioritization processes.
Criticism of Law Enforcement
During the 2020 election cycle, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris took advantage of every opportunity to virtue signal to the rioting woke mobs. Both were continuously critical of law enforcement at a time when their voices only increased the risk to those who wear the uniform. They are on record encouraging the diversion of funds from law enforcement agencies to social justice and ungoverned community investment programs. Our vice president even went so far as to provide direction to her supporters on how to contribute to the bail funds of those arrested during the violence of George Floyd 2020 riots.President Biden doubled down several times on how and where law enforcement funds should be pulled and redirected. One of the interesting strategies that their handlers got the dynamic duo to invest in was the “mayonnaise and no mayonnaise” strategy. They fully encouraged those in the actual process of rioting, while breathing wind into the sails of those working 24-7 to destroy the budgets of law enforcement agencies. To provide a lifeline to Snopes fact checkers, much of their commentary would end with, “...but I condemn violence in any form.” Without the statements of support given by Biden and Harris, a significant amount of law enforcement defunding would not have happened.
I would argue that these two would have said the exact opposite if they thought it would have helped them during the election cycle. That’s the simplicity of not having a core belief. You can say two things simultaneously and order a sandwich with mayonnaise and no mayonnaise. We must understand that the Biden-Harris administration doesn’t hate the police. They just don’t like the ones that are not directly in their chain of command—hence we come to the point of this article, which is the Safer America Plan.
Step 1: May 25 Executive Order
Step one of the solution was initiated on May 25 by executive order. The order is called, “Advancing Effective Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety.” Unpacking the naming convention would require another article, but suffice to say, it is likely to not advance accountability, justice, trust, or safety.The executive order is quite extensive, and after wading through the ban on bayonets and grenade launchers, you’ll get deeper into the sections that guarantee diversity, inclusion, and equity, as well as a host of mechanisms that will ultimately be alternatives to federal incarceration.
Perhaps most applicable to our conversation is section 20, titled, “Supporting Safe and Effective Policing Through Grantmaking.” To be consistent, Biden’s executive order author used an inversion of logic while titling the section. In essence, it requires all law enforcement entities receiving federal law enforcement-related grants (to include the COPS grants) to adhere to the tenets of the executive order or face a termination of funding.
Most authoritarian nations, whether they be fascist, Marxist, or somewhere in between, adopt a national or federal policing system. This has largely not been the case in the United States, where we have cherished the delegation of authority to the local level as practical. Sheriffs departments are the prime example of a law enforcement agency’s accountability and relationship to the community, as the sheriff is an elected position.
Step 2: Safer America Plan
Step two on our road to ruin lays in the president’s Safer America Plan that is buried in the 2023 budget. This $37 billion monstrosity would provide nearly $13 billion over the course of 10 years to hire 100,000 police officers through COPS program grants to local law enforcement. The other $20 billion would support prevention and criminal justice reform efforts while (without specifics) tightening gun laws. Again, we see the same sandwich ordered with mayonnaise and no mayonnaise.Citizens on the periphery will hear the American Civil Liberties Union and other left-leaning organizations rail against the $13 billion and 100,000 hired. You will continue to hear them say that these oppressive organizations are outdated and don’t provide increased levels of safety for the community. Of course, they are wrong, but simultaneously you will hear cash-starved agencies say the $13 billion isn’t enough, and the second place cash winner should be those working on prevention and reform.
Since the Biden administration has proven that they are willing to print money into oblivion, the number followed by a “B” becomes the ultimate physical expression of the quote by Archimedes, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” The Biden-Harris administration will leverage the very parties that should be scrutinizing the sudden federalizing of law enforcement through an even larger two digit number in front of the “B”. You must understand, they don’t care about outcomes, they care about establishing a chain of command in which they are perched on top.
The Biden-Harris administration, as well as dozens of leftist governors, are responsible for much of the defunding of local law enforcement entities. They skillfully organized material support for, provided intellectual credence to, misrepresented facts for, and outright interfered with investigations of organizations scripting the defunding actions. I can come to no other conclusion than they took these actions in anticipation of gaining control of the federal checkbook and thus expanding their influence over those who are providing law enforcement services where we live.
The question I have for the reader is, why do they want this power, and what do they plan on doing with their influence when they get it?
