Nolte: Democrat-run Chicago Suffers Massive Cop Shortage

In today’s chapter of Woke Is a Violation of Human Nature, I offer this story about the Chicago Police Department, which is currently facing a shortage of some 1,600 police officers:

[Ald. Anthony] Beale recently asked city Budget Director Susie Park for the expected number of sworn officer vacancies on Jan. 1, 2022.  In a memo, Park puts that number at an expected 908 vacancies, not counting any unexpected resignations or retirements.

But Beale said that number is actually much higher.

“People fail to realize last year we wiped out 614 vacancies out of last year’s budget, and when we talk about that we’re down 1,000 officers, we’re actually down 1,600 officers.

And things are looking just as dire for the future. According to the police department, only 5,000 applications were received for the police academy this year, compared to the 30,000 they usually get.

Oh, and as of right now, there are only about 100 cadets training to be police officers.

In one of the most violent cities globally, a city that generally employs around 12,000 active-duty cops, they’re short 1,600.

Astonishing. And if you look at the number of academy applicants, pretty much no one wants to be a police officer anymore. But why would they when cops in Democrat-run cities are treated like Nazis and murderers—not only by Democrat politicians but the fake news media.

Beale put it this way, “People don’t want to be the police. The police don’t want to be the police.”

How predictable this all was…

The “Defund the Police” lunatics cut more than 600 positions, and the loss of those other 1,000, according to this article, come from trained officers choosing early retirement, quitting altogether, or moving on to smaller police forces in smaller towns where cops are not treated like murderers and Nazis.

With 1,600 shortages and only 100 cadets in the pipeline, what you have here is a vicious circle. Staff shortages mean more hours and second shifts for the cops still on the job. That creates burnout. Burnout creates resignations. Resignations created more shortages and more hours. And on and on it goes.

One ex-cop, who quit after eight years, told Chicago’s CBS2, “I knew I was just going to be put in worse working situations and conditions from there on because they were going to be short-staffed.”

And let’s not forget that the police officers still out there are watching all their risk and hard work down the toilet when Chicago’s State Attorney, Kim Foxx, refuses to charge violent criminals, including those who engage in daylight gun battles in residential neighborhoods.

This is what I mean about woke being a violation of human nature…

What people want most of all is security. They want to know they can live their lives without fear of the unexpected, especially unexpected danger. People want the stability of routine and nothing undermines that more than violent crime and living with the constant fear of violent crime.

So the Woketards come along, and what do they do? They demand the police be defunded, they demand Big City Democrats trash the police and undermine them, and what is the natural result? Police officers flee. Police officers stop enforcing the law. Violent crime explodes, and Chicago residents become unhappy with the lack of stability in their lives.

Even a moron like myself was warning you about this very outcome some two years ago.

When it comes to alternatives to law enforcement, everything has already been tried and failed. It just doesn’t work. Criminals are criminals. They’re not going to listen to social workers. They’re not going to get with the program—quite the opposite. Instead, criminals are going to exploit every weakness they come across. Why? Because they’re criminals.

But again, this is not my problem. I live in Rural MAGA Land where life is good, where the air and water are clean, where the streets are safe, where there are no hate crimes, where we all live together fully armed in relative peace with one another.

These idiots in Chicago continue to vote for Democrats.

You get what you vote for, and what you got was a once-great city turned into Dystopia.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.