Asheville, North Carolina Dangerous After George Floyd
More than 40 percent of the police officers in the tourist city of Asheville, North Carolina have left the force, and, not surprisingly, crime has surged.
The goings-on in Asheville caught the attention of RVIVR after a local newspaper in that city, The Mountain Express, reported how dire public safety is there.
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The website reported that 20 years ago, when Asheville had 20,000 fewer residents, the city had 255 officers. Now that number is down to 142. One-third of the force left within a year of the George Floyd protests.
Is the exodus of so many police officers a result of the Defund the Police movement?
“Officers who had found themselves facing off against protestors complained that they lost support from the City Council,” The Mountain Express reported.
The result: more break-ins, more shoplifting, more erratic behavior in public, more illicit sex, more aggressive panhandlers, and more human waste and drug needles in doorways.
So, again, is all this a direct result of the Defund the Police movement in a city that’s so liberal it’s promised reparations to blacks?
Asheville Police Department spokeswoman Samantha Booth told RVIVR the answer is no.
“There were no police officer positions removed,” Booth said via email.
“A reallocation of certain staff from the Asheville Police Department, such as the animal services, was reallocated as a part of the city’s re-imagining of public safety.”
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Booth said many officers resigned from the force, and “they did so for a variety of reasons,” which she did not specify.
“This, along with normal attrition, has led to a severe reduction in staff.”
Booth admitted that the reduction in the number of police officers played a role in increasing crime.
City of Asheville spokeswoman Kim Miller said via email that city council members have increased pay and other incentives to help the city’s police force.
Asheville’s 2022-2023 budget shows that the city is spending $30.1 million on police versus the previous fiscal year, when it was $28.3 million.
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