Roy Exum: The Stupids In Asheville

For the longest time, I’ve felt a certain kinship with the people in Asheville, N.C. I love Chattanooga; it is a great place to live and I’ve always felt of Asheville as the same way … great outdoors, mountain trails, small restaurants with good food, great air to breathe, and a lots of friendly and kind people. Good manners in public, and to total strangers, gets my attention.

But in the past year, Asheville has been beset by the same group of stupids that have begun to sprout in good medium-sized and even small cities.

Asheville (pop. 92,452) got a horrible dose of the “defund the police” epidemic – this due to sorry government leadership – and this week the city budget remained the same for FY 2022, but, just this year (since Jan. 1), 84 police officers have quit. Even better, the Asheville Police Department has just announced three officers quit at the main station and the APD can’t possibly reopen to the public until “November or December.”

In other words, draw a line through Asheville on America’s list of real cool places you would love to live, but that’s not the worst part: Rather than face the reason(s) for the police exodus, the geniuses that have allowed such a travesty to occur have issued “rules” that won’t allow certain crimes to be reported on the 9-1-1 frequency. I kid you not! This is due to under-staffing, it is claimed, and the newest budget does little to remedy this crisis.

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UNACCEPTABLE REASONS TO DIAL 9-1-1 IN ASHEVILLE

* -- Theft from a vehicle where there is no suspect information

* -- Minimal damage and/or graffiti to property where there is no suspect information

* -- Non-life-threatening harassing phone calls (does not include incidents that are related to domestic violence and/or stalking)

* -- Fraud, scams, or identity theft

* -- Simple assaults that are reported after they have occurred

* -- Reports that do not require immediate police actions and/or enforcement (information only reports)

* -- Funeral escorts

* -- Lost/found property

* -- Trespassing where the property owner does not want to press charges

(In addition, noise complaints made during normal business hours and after-hours may have a significant delay in response.)

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Police Criminal Information Officer Christiana Hallingse said victims of these lesser matters should instead use a purported Police-to-Citizen line (828-252-1110) to have an officer respond when they are available. But, be warned, there could be a significant delay in police response. There was no mention in decreased taxes for decreased police services.

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ATLANTA ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ SUPPORTER WAITS ‘ON HOLD’ FOR 5 MINUTES

Last Wednesday Atlanta City Councilman Antonio Brown watched in shock as four kids hopped in his Mercedes at a Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins store opening and drove away. Antonio, a leading advocate of “Defund the Police,” then waited over five minutes on “hold” after dialing 9-1-1 and police responded … 45 minutes later. How are we doing, Antonio?

The four kids who swiped the activist’s Mercedes are believed to rank in age from 7 to 11 years old and neither have they been arrested nor has the councilman’s car been recovered. Similar incidents in “defund the police” cities are rapidly proving the racist-driven sham is a major embarrassment.

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HOMICIDES UP 300% IN OAKLAND BUT THEY ‘DEFUND’ ANYWAY.

The free-thinking city government in Oakland is moving ahead with its vow to Defund the Police, despite homicides in May are up 300 percent over last year at this time. No wonder acceptance of the emotional “defund” effort in Oakland has fallen to a withering 18 percent.

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FROM THE GUARDIAN: “On Wednesday the Oakland’s Reimagine Public Safety taskforce finished approving dozens of recommendations to take to city council. Upping investments in proven community violence prevention strategies and creating a program to respond to mental health crises without police present are included in the panoply of alternatives.

“Even with these lofty goals and efforts to acknowledge the heavy toll of gun violence, several members of Oakland’s taskforce remain uneasy about measures that would significantly cut police presence, especially as the city loses ground in its years-long struggle to reduce gun violence.

“We’re supposed to address it all: the nonsense in policing and the nonsense in the community that is hurting us all. But it feels like the community issue is something that no one wants to touch,” echoed Antoine Towers, chair of the Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition, a non-law enforcement collective striving to interrupt cycles of violence.

“Once California’s shelter-in-place order began, gun violence in the San Francisco Bay Area began to creep upward, and by the end of 2020 homicides – mostly by firearm –were up 35 percent compared with the year before. The increase was exceptionally painful in Oakland where gun deaths had been on a steady decline since 2012 and were on track to reach record lows in 2020. So far this year, 29 people have been murdered in the city - 22 more deaths than last year in the same time period, according to the police department.

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“QUICK & FUN FACTS FROM ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ CITIES”

FROM FOX NEWS (via bearingarms.com) – “Between Dec. 11, 2020, and March 28 of this year, murders in the city (Minneapolis) rose 46 percent – to 19 – compared to the 13 reported during the same time period last year, statistics show.

(From Portland) There were 63 homicide offenses reported from July 2020 through Feb. 2021, but only 17 recorded from July 2019 through Feb. 2020, police data show.

Murders in New York City are up 11.8 percent year-to-date as of March 21, with 76 reported this year compared to the 68 from 2020, according to NYPD crime statistics.

And for 2021, (Los Angeles’) murders are up 28.3 percent as of March 13, with 77 killings reported this year to date compared to the 60 reported during the same time in 2020, statistics show. The number of shooting victims nearly doubled, from 157 reported through March 13, 2020, compared to this year’s 303.

As of February 2021, the most recently available data showed there were 11 murders year-to-date in Austin compared to the 10 reported during the same time last year, statistics show. Meanwhile, aggravated assault reports were up 26 percent, from 415 reported year-to-date in 2020 compared to the 524 so far this year.

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CONSENSUS CONCLUSION: “That list only focused on the violent crimes and murders in those cities. Overall, property crimes have also skyrocketed.  What does this all mean? Well for starters, the defund the police social experiment seems to be a complete failure.”

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IN ASHEVILLE, N.C – “Let’s trim our 9-1-1 calls. That’ll reduce crime.”

Please.

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Royexum@aol.com