If your house is being burglarized, or you are being mugged, elite liberals have some advice for you: call a math teacher. As crime in Colorado has soared — we are ranked the third most-dangerous state — hardcore progressives in the Legislature have largely refused to take direct, aggressive steps to make the state safer. Putting more cops on the street and keeping violent criminals in jail longer are two ideas they recoil from like vampires from garlic.
That’s why on the ballot hitting your mailbox in a few days is a measure that directs $350 million in existing funds to help local communities hire and retain officers, expand training and provide additional needed equipment. Who could possibly oppose that? A sliver of out-of-touch progressive ideologues who live in a utopian parallel universe where evil can be magically erased through just the right admixture of social programs. Enter the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a far-left advocacy outfit whose laughable and thin arguments against Proposition 130 strive to persuade voters that putting more cops on the street is a waste.
Where would they spend the money? On “steps that really increase safety and deter crime.” For example, hiring 5,700 teachers. A lovely idea.
But here’s a news flash: cops and teachers aren’t interchangeable. I might be old-fashioned, but if my home is being burgled or my car is being stolen, and I call 911, I don’t need my son’s math teacher to turn up. I need well-trained officers with g.