The year 2020 was a turning point for the entire U.S. law enforcement system. The murder of George Floyd by Officer Derek Chauvin dealt a serious blow to the image of policing and its employees. Mass protests and riots, which quickly spread throughout the country, demonstrated the distrust of part of the population in the work of law enforcement agencies.

The Black Lives Matter movement, having determined its goal to combat racial discrimination, has become, without exaggeration, a catalyst for distrust of the entire U.S. law enforcement system. Existing since 2013, BLM especially grew in 2020, as a response to the infamous events in Minnesota.

During the popular unrest, in which many black Americans took part, the slogan "Defund The Police” was actively used, calling for reducing funding for police departments and transferring the saved funds to other public organizations. It is known that the widespread use of this wording did not lead to significant results. Despite this, some factors have influenced law enforcement services to partially lose their prestige and become less attractive.

In June 2020, immediately after the infamous events, BLM representatives proposed to bring Defund The Police to life to reform the existing law enforcement system. And, unsurprisingly, it was in blue Minneapolis that such rhetoric was taken seriously.

A resolution adopted by a group of city council members appeared on the city's website, which involved replacing the police department with a department of public safety and violence prevention. At the same time, the functions of the newly created body were painted quite vaguely, limited not to the fully understandable wording "responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach."

And, thanks to God, this decision has not been approved. Now just imagine: let's deprive a large city of police, and distribute its functions among civilian organizations.

Brilliant.

Those who came up with such an initiative did not have a clear plan: It was another populist move designed to meet the needs of the distraught crowd.

However, the events that occurred seriously influenced the desire of American citizens to serve in the police. According to research carried out by PERF, between 2020 and 2023, the number of police recruits fell, while the number of layoffs from service increased significantly. The fact that such a decline was observed precisely during the Biden administration is not at all surprising. Most of the decisions taken by Democrats in the last four years are pure populism without any background.

It turns out that BLM achieved one of its goals -- the number of people wishing to continue to associate their lives with policing has significantly decreased. However, if we consider this issue from a rational point of view, it turns out that instead of adequate proposals for reforming the police system, the ideological crowd has achieved that police, whose job is to protect the population from criminals, have become criminals in the eyes of the public.

At the same time, no one will undertake to assert that there are no cases of misconduct by the police. But people often do not see what work is being done by police, how many potential crimes have been prevented and how many criminals have not escaped from responsibility.

The toxic attitude towards police officers has crossed all boundaries in recent years. This affected the fact that fewer people were willing to serve in law enforcement agencies. Seems the question now is how to attract people to work for the police.

After all, there are rational proposals -- to provide employees with appropriate training, to carry out preliminary work with the police to prevent abuse of authority, and to enable them to receive additional psychological assistance due to actions in stressful conditions. Perhaps, importantly, there are calls to increase funding (say 'hi' to Bidenflation).

America is the most progressive, free and sensible country in the world. It was, and must continue to be. There is a whole list of opportunities to increase the prestige of work in law enforcement agencies because serving in the police should be a privilege, not a punishment. The fact that this is not given due attention will continue to lead to cases like in 2020. And, honestly, I don't want anybody to experience such a thing once again. It is hoped that the next administration, which will be better than the current one, will pay due attention to this issue and make police service worthy and worthwhile again.

Shawn Hodges lives in Jackson, Ohio. Proud husband and father of two, spending my free time trying to understand and dig into U.S. politics.

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