In the wake of the George Floyd riots, police are being demonized across the country, each and every officer now being held responsible for the action of its least-worthy members.

They're also being targeted for 'defunding' as if any society on earth could exist without some measure of policing without turning into Lord of the Flies.

It's getting little coverage, but the stories are dribbling out in rapidly about a collective call for help: Some 272 New York police officers retired in the wake of George Floyd riots, a 49% spike over the year earlier. Seattle was similar - its forces are operating at just 65% capacity. Minneapolis has seen at least seven resignations. Joel Pollak, at Breitbart News has an astonishing report about police demoralization in Los Angeles:

Morale within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is currently at a “record low,” thanks to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests and the vilification of police by local politicians.

Robert Harris, the director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told CBS Los Angeles that officers feel “beaten” and “bruised” by the ongoing protests.

That was corroborated by a Breitbart News source within the LAPD, who said: “Morale across the rank-and-file is at a record low. Especially out on the street in patrol. We have been vilified and abandoned by the mayor, all but three of the city council members, as well as many business owners and residents of the city of Los Angeles.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at the height of the riots in early June — with the National Guard on the streets — that he would be cutting the LAPD budget by up to $150 million, answering calls from activists to “defund the police.”

It's bad, and it portends some bad times as police jobs are abandoned, and early retirements spike upward.

“The citizens think crime and homelessness is bad now? They have seen nothing yet,” the LAPD source told Breitbart News. “Wait till a couple of months go by. Pro-activity is all but gone. It sucks. But the community has allowed cops to be vilified.

“When there is blood in the streets, due to a drastic increase of out-of-control violent crime? Then all the people, including businesses who have turned their backs on cops, will learn of the mistake they made on selling us out!

Police demonization didn't start with the George Floyd case -- it doesn't help that every major city in America is under one-party blue rule, and in the absence of Republicans, the ruling leftist elites use police as a proxy since they have no Republicans to fight against.

Yet police don't stand for Republican or Democrat sides - they are actually a proxy for fairness and rule of law.

Law is what the left really despises, the left has always been about obtaining unfettered power without burden of law. 

A good guess for when the rot started and the downhill slide in respect for law and order could be argued to be the decriminalization of marijuana laws, and from there, the emptying of prisons, which began in earnest shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. The academic rhetoric against "mass incarceration" likely had some effect, and the calls to end prisons, such as came from longtime lionized communist, Angela Davis, in a speech as UCLA a few years ago, added to the slide.

Meanwhile, leftist protestors rocked the streets and looted shops with the George Floyd riots. Hollywood jumped in and took police shows off the air. Suddenly cops were en masse painted as evil instead of heroes.

Now there's talk of defunding the police, and police are moving out ahead of it by resigning first.

The failure of Democrat blue city pols (and their voters) to back the police forces under their command is driving it most of all. These cowards may preen and posture about not wanting a police force, but heaven help them if they get it - the result is going to be hellishness.

In the meantime, the existing forces are showing signs of distress which will make itself felt in many ways: Recruiting will be down. Recruiting will attract the worst, including organized criminals with an interest in controlling and corrupting the system rather than protecting their community. Police themselves will retire at their desks, seeing nothing, doing nothing proactive, taking no chances. Those that remain will focus only on making an early retirement for their pensions. In these instances, police won't be defunded, they'll just be expensiv zombies for the cities.

The burden rests then on mid-sized and small cities to develop a new culture of supporting police forces. Police are human beings and respond to incentives. Any town that wants them had better be prepared to defend them. Right now that's not seen in the crumbling blue cities that by no coincidence, are also seeing citizens flee. 

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