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| A suspect tests a car door handle in a Potomac driveway in August (MCPD photo) |
Another visit from car thieves to Bannockburn and Glen Echo in recent days has some residents saying enough is enough. Multiple thieves were caught on home security cameras walking onto properties and testing car door handles. At least one unlocked car was reported stolen. Bannockburn residents are now discussing whether the community should hire a private security patrol.
Some Bethesda and Potomac neighborhoods have had private security for years. It is a costly proposition, but residents discussing the possibility on a local listserv argue that they can afford the expense. One resident recalled that Bannockburn had private security in the past.
After the Montgomery County Council cut 27 police officer positions, there is a shortage of police units in Bethesda at night. A slow police response to a recent request from Montgomery County firefighters for traffic control on Westbard Avenue during a fire underlined that fact. Now residents are seriously considering filling the police vacuum with private security.
36 comments:
Bethesda neighborhoods have been having this conversation for years. Unfortunately, the cost and potential liability of hiring private security are both high, and we're paying outrageous property taxes already that should fund an adequate police department.
I'd like to see these people putting constant, hard pressure on the County Council to fund our police department, get more officers on the street, and stop prioritizing other areas over Bethesda for patrol coverage. All you need to do is pull the police reports to see we have a serious and growing crime problem.
Or maybe *just maybe* don't leave your car door unlocked with the key inside if you don't want your car stolen. Blaming police is idiotic. And blaming the elimination of SRO positions is even more idiotic - that obviously has nothing to do with this theft.
So Democrats defund police, crime rises "unexpectedly" now the same liberals want private security who in general are never trained as well as the police department.
Democrats ruin everything they touch. Let's Go Brandon!
Leftists who supported leftist politicians who had policies of defunding the police now want to hire their own private security at substantial cost while the rest of the County suffers from an insufficiently staffed police force. When did you leftists become such selfish law and order bigots? Private security is the epitome of White Supremacy and Privilege. See you and raise you, you woke clowns.
You leftists deserve this. I hope more of your cars are stolen, especially if there's a BLM/Biden Harris/Hate Has No Home Here sign on your lawn or on your car. I don't care if this offends you.
Call a social worker you bigots.
This one's for you SocialNorm: Any comment?
It's so typical of leftist hypocrites to cough up personal money for private security rent-a-cops that exclusively patrol their own neighborhoods instead of demanding that the corrupt MoCo Cartel Leadership fully fund the MoCo Police Department which would patrol everyone's.
MCPD's budget has literally never declined y/y and even went up this past year by $1.5M. The "leftists defund" dope above should try actually educating himself on the issue instead of posting the same uneducated nonsense on here dozens of times.
So the affluent neighborhoods will have private police and the rest of the county will continue to have crime surging. Lovely.
6:03: Most department budgets - especially under this Council - increase every year, but according to the police union, 27 officer positions were cut in the budget.
Kenwood has had private security for years. With the morale and defund posture, they don't have enough police to fight these crimes as they happen all over the area every night. Not good.
@6:03 AM - By raw numbers you would be correct but like all liberals who failed at math, you haven't taken into account inflation for FY2022 which most normal people would recognize as a huge increase over the past year.
I realize Uncle Joe isn't the Obama you voted for but liberals would rather destroyt the country than let someone without the correct letter after their name get the job. As Robert as posted numerous times on the crime wave we have now, you get what you voted for.
This is consistent with what Leftists in Congress are doing. While supporting the defunding of police, harassment of political opponents, and elimination of penalties for criminals; they hire private security. Sometimes that is paid for from left over campaign funds.
The chickens have indeed come home to roost. The elites have thought power, prestige,
and property would protect them from the crime the policies and practices have caused to be reigned down on others of lesser means.
Instead of private security, the elites should be demanding that the County Council see to
it that enough police officers are hired and trained to provide protection for ALL citizens.
The Council will listen. After all, it is the well off who keep them in office.
@6:41 AM: Would you expect anything else from these leftist elitists at this point? They have no shame about doing this and that's because they constantly reaffirm to each other in their bubble that they're the good, compassionate people.
@6:51 AM: Until these woke leftist elitists decide to support MoCo County Officeholders which provide funding to fully staff the MoCo Police Department to serve the needs of the MoCo community, I want more of their cars to be stolen. I also hope they pay through the nose for this ineffective private security, which unless they're off-duty police, can't tap into the intelligence/informant networks that police departments have and use for busting and catching these criminals.
"you haven't taken into account inflation for FY2022"
Maybe you haven't taken into account that you simply don't have a basic understanding of what you're talking about. The 2022 operating budget saw less than a 3% increase from 2021. MCPD's increase was comparable to most other county departments, including MCPS. Local jurisdictions also increased their spending on police, e.g. Rockville's 1.7% increase (while decreasing funding for about half of their other city departments including Finance, Public Works, Rec. & Parks, and Planning and Development).
Again, the only PD positions that were eliminated were SROs - which obviously has no bearing on car theft. And those officers were transferred to bolster other MCPD divisions, not fired.
"As Robert as posted numerous times on the crime wave we have now, you get what you voted for."
Exactly! Homicides up 30% in 2020 which was the largest increase in US history.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/upshot/murder-rise-2020.html
Trump voters should be ashamed of what they did to this country. Luckily things are coming back under control now, but the healing will certainly not happen overnight. And the nightmare could start all over again in 2024 if we aren't careful.
Liberals in kenwood voted to defund the police but have security alarms and security police
Meanwhile the more middle class neighborhoods of ashburton are left to the wolves
Rich white liberals are destroying this country
11:56: To be fair, Kenwood is one of the few neighborhoods in Bethesda/Chevy Chase with a relatively high number of Republican residents. I doubt it's a voting majority anymore, though.
@11:04 & 11:13 Unfortunately this the the squirrel cage of logic liberals are in. TDS has them believing that a budget increase far below projected FY2022 projections of almost 6% displays weakness of the zero sum gain accounting Democrats have about the economy in general.
So Trump is responsible for the upswing in homicides? Wow, what mental institution let those who actually believe this out? Nothing is EVER a liberals fault because of good intentions.
Luckily the Democrats have shown their cards for every rational person to see. Their control of the current administration is indeed the examples of fantasy rule. In the real world, results matter.
9:18 PM Since you asked, you and the rest of your ilk feel so picked on and isolated due to your wealth, yet you have not seen comparison reports or stats for other areas of the county. I would not be surprised to find that your theft rate is no different from other areas. So, quit your b*tching, lock your damn car doors, and better utilize the preventive devices you paid so dearly for. Property crimes hit everyone.
The mental gymnastics one needs to go through to believe that all things are equal regardless of governance is why there are people like 7:58 AM. I get it, liberals regardless of results are good and everything that doesn't tow the Democrats line is bad. Too bad you're never subject to the laws you want everyone else to live under.
You've obviously never worked in the private sector where results are the only thing that matter.
@11:21 PM: Exactly right. Well said.
@7:58 AM: Property crimes hit everyone, but you seem to avoid accepting any ownership or responsibility for the fact that your woke leftist policies enable them, if not incentivize them to occur. Your woke leftist policies are the system in MoCo. Politicians with your woke leftist values run things in MoCo. You won't ever admit that they've failed the community and that you yourself own this failure. Like I've said before, I hope your car is stolen so that your mouth meets your woke leftist values through lived experience on this. Until then, you're just a hypocrite spouting off incoherent noise.
Amazing with all of the taxes and fees we pay that we'll also have to separately fund our own neighborhood private police patrol.
"I hope your car is stolen"
You're an evil person and I hope you realize that and repent before you end up burning in hell for eternity, friend.
@2:24 PM: Because that's how woke leftist elitism rolls. They'll never admit how they've failed the community and that they completely own that failure. They just want to surround themselves with a bubble of people who reassure them that they're all good, well-intentioned people. Now they're surrounding themselves with a private police force to protect that bubble.
@8:26 PM: I'm less evil than the criminal(s) stealing the car(s), but you don't see it that way because of your woke leftist beliefs.
8:26 PM - Ok. Now do the auto thief.
@11:44 AM You and the rest of the Right-wing-nutjob mob are of the mind set that your party has the solution to every issue in society. Had that been the truth, they would rule at every level of government. Thank goodness it's just a mental illness of those like you who fail and then fail to admit being abject failures. Your persistent finger pointing and blaming others simply displays your panty twisting, mental rage, lacking any rational solutions, except we know what's best. NOT! You even state "Property crimes hit everyone", in your lame, repetitive reply. Well there, your neighborhood is normal then. STAY WOKE! Find a conservative, or group of these mental midgets, that the populace will get behind, and maybe others will buy into them. I seriously doubt that given their past track record, and the clown leading the pack. Get over yourself.
"Property crimes hit everone" is a way of saying we should all accept a crime wave that has been manufactured by Democrats. Bail reform and zero prosecution for crimes under a threshold encourage crime despite liberals claiming otherwise. 5-year olds on the playground understand this far more clearly than 2:12PM, but that's due to the unwillingness to look at the facts that are out there. Clearly their adherence to media like CNN/NYT etal has damaged far more than just analytical skills but memory as well.
MLK said "the truth will set you free" but liberals have chosen to be prisoners of their ideology. This is on display daily by their goto networks not only by what they say but more importantly what they don't report or say. I would say open your eyes to another point of view but I'm afraid it's far too late as critical thinking was lost a long time ago. And that is sad.
@2:12 PM: This is the incoherent denial and deflection I expected from you. Well done. I want solutions to problems, especially this one. Unfortunately, your leftist woke beliefs and the policies of the leftist woke MoCo politicians that you and your like-minded leftist woke brethren elected, and which run EVERYTHING in MoCo as a result, simply are not promulgating any kind of effective solution(s) to the problem(s) of auto theft crime here. They just aren't. This level of crime is not what an effective solution looks like to any reasonable person.
Now I don't think this failure and betrayal of the community is something that really disturbs you. You actually find it acceptable because it's not about having effective solutions for you anyway. It's really about power, and you'd rather have the woke leftists that you voted for and elected in power in MoCo more than anything else and anyone else. Power and control is more important to you (and to them) than any actual effective solution to this problem, and you know it. So this is a failure and betrayal of the entire community on your part, and when I say that "I hope your car is stolen", I meant it. I want you to own and experience this failure and betrayal for yourself because your leftist woke values actually wanted this vision of a solution and you continue to support it. So you specifically deserve to experience the repercussions of the woke leftist solution to crime here. Specifically you, not someone else.
Yup, property crimes hit everyone here in MoCo. What's untrue about that? Everyone pays higher insurance rates as a result of your wokeness too. Another truth. I can do this all day.
@7:10 AM, 9:32 AM, and 1:38 AM Conservatives stand for nothing, nada, Where are your plans? What solutions have you or any of your ilk, put forth? NONE! Good at fear mongering that's all. A Pathetic party of fools, still drooling over a sad, wannabe dictators, failed regime. Perhaps to satisfy you clowns we should audit the last MoCo election umpteen times.
10:11 AM is a perfect example of why no amount of education can overcome a small closed mind. If their media masters don't tell them what to think, say or respond, they end up spewing ad hominem attacks. No argument is possible because they can't support anything with facts.
@10:11 AM: This clearly broke you. Keep screaming in your woke leftist reality distortion field. I'm more happy and content than you'll ever be. I hope your car is stolen.
@11:45 @2:01 Enjoy your fact source, FOXNEWS ticker, it's FAKE NEWS!!
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