The last straw for Tim Ratcliff came when he was sitting down to eat lunch with his girlfriend outside his own restaurant a block away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Right as I sat down, I looked over, and a homeless man had come over, and he sucker-punched a 64-year-old man in the head. Knocked him over,” Ratcliff told a local television station. “You crossed the line. This was too far,” he remembers thinking before he got up from his table, chased down the attacker, and pinned him for almost 15 minutes before police finally arrived.
ANOTHER BUSINESS FLEES SAN FRANCISCO CRIME
Ratcliff says he has noticed a significant increase in crime since the Los Angeles Police Department started losing officers, and he desperately wishes there were more law enforcement around Hollywood. “We’re having to deal with it,” Ratcliff said.
The LAPD has responded to the police shortage by offering $10,000 bonuses for officers who sign with the force and then another $24,000 in housing subsidies for officers who stay on the force for at least two years.
And the LAPD is not alone.
According to the Police Executive Research Forum, the number of police resignations surged by 40% in 2020, leading to an overall staffing reduction of 6.6% in the Midwest and 4.4% in the western United States. Over that same time period, crime has spiked 4%, with robberies up 12%.
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Like the LAPD, police departments across the country are turning to cash bonuses to attract new recruits. Seattle and New Orleans are each offering new police officers $30,000, while Portland, Oregon, is offering $20,000, and Fairfax, Virginia, is offering $15,000. Some departments are even relaxing their no-tattoo policies to expand the pool of hires.
It is unfortunate that crime had to get so bad before people realized how essential police are to maintaining law and order. Law enforcement is never perfect — they are humans, after all — but hopefully, the next time an officer messes up, the Left won’t overreact again and send our nation’s cities into chaos.
