(RepublicanInformer.com)- Washington, D.C. City Council voted unanimously last Tuesday to grant an additional $11 million in funds to the city’s police department after far-left Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser finally conceded that defunding the police has been a disaster for the city.
While Mayor Bowser didn’t admit it in words, her actions made it clear that the “defund the police” movement was likely only promoted as a ploy to keep ultra-progressive voters on her side during the last election season. And now that crime has skyrocketed in the city, she knows it’s time to reverse course.
The city council, which is controlled by the Democrats, voted to advance a “compromise” package, whereby some $5 million would be directed to the Metropolitan Police Department to hire more police officers, and a further $6 million would be given to various “wrap-around” services.
It means that another 170 officers will be added to the city’s police department, on top of the 135 officers that Mayor Bowser already requested be hired.
In a statement, D.C.’S city council said that residents “want safety, not politics.”
It would have been nice if the Democrats had been willing to admit that last year, when hundreds of American cities were being destroyed by far-left activists calling for the defunding of the police.
The statement also revealed how gun violence is rising in the city “like a disease,” before claiming that a “police-only response” would not address the causes of the crime. It was a clear effort to make it appear as though this wasn’t a walking-back of their defunding of the police last year, but an effort to address the causes of the problem instead.
Bowser also said that the department may “break” if they aren’t careful, and that officers need to be hired as soon as possible.
It comes as data reveals that crime in D.C. has increased by 19% from 2019 to 2020, with 114 homicides having occurred in 2021 so far.
