Montgomery County police responded to a shots-fired report at Pike & Rose Sunday night. The gunfire was reported to 911 at 9:17 PM in the 11500 block of Old Georgetown Road. @CordellTraffic on Twitter reported that officers responding to the scene found evidence outside of Sports & Social Bethesda, and a bullet inside the sports bar. No injuries were reported.
Police have not yet commented publicly on the motive for the shooting, or on the search for any suspects involved. @CordellTraffic cited a dispute or altercation as the catalyst for the gunshot(s) that followed.
9 comments:
Police need to be conspicuously and permanently stationed with visible flashing roof lights at high traffic areas like Pike & Rose, Bethesda Row and Montgomery Mall. Yes, it's come to that. Need to hire more officers to be able to do that? Do that. I am fully justified in blaming the ineffective one-party leadership for the rampant violent crime which is now occurring in MoCo.
People are going to stop going to Pike & Rose. Why take the family out there for the evening when there's gunfire?
Mmmmm. . . security theatre, which is what your proposal amounts to, 8:06
I enjoyed your polemic, but Montgomery County hasn't had a Republican majority Council in more than 50 years. The last time Republicans were in a position to exert any influence over the Council was 1970, their last majority. The last R County Executive was Gleason, who left in 1978. If crime is the fault of Democrats, why wasn't it an issue in the 1980s, or '90s, or anytime before the recent uptick? At a loss for answers? I'll help: Because the problem isn't Democrats, it's more people in the community; more money in the community to make criminals hungrier to get some; more communication that informs about every criminal incident.
Absolutely, we should hire more police. You and I agree on that. But your rhetoric trying to lash this to politics is baseless.
@11:03 AM: So it's now security theatre to have a visible police presence at a well trafficked area and officers patrolling inside it? That's a new one. Wow.
MoCo crime in the present day is the fault of its Democrat Leadership because the MoCo Police Force is less than half the size of what it needs to be for a County this size. That is an indisputable fact. The County grew in population over the last 20 years but the size of the MoCo Police Force didn't keep pace with that growth. It's undeniably one-party Democrat rule in MoCo and it's been that for some time. The police regularly report to the County on crime trends and police staffing.
Again, the size of the MoCo Police Force is less than half what it should be for a County this size. This Report speaks for itself: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2022/20220131/20220131_PS2.pdf
"The Committee has received regular updates on Police staffing and is well aware that while the Department’s staff has historically been lower than the average for similarly-sized jurisdictions, Montgomery County continued to have relatively low crime rates. After taking significant budget cuts during the great recession, Police staffing increased slowly over the past 10 years, from 1,159 authorized sworn positions in FY12 to a high of 1,306 in FY21."
............
"For FY22, MCPD has an authorized sworn complement of 1,281 officers. This number reflects 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents. It is significantly lower than the average 2.8 officers per capita reported for counties, and the 2.5 officers per capita reported for suburban areas. While per capita staffing is just one measure of police department strength, it is important to note that MCPD’s per capita staffing has remained about 1.2 for almost 20 years."
It's a deliberate policy of the County Leadership not to sufficiently increase the size of the force to address the current crime issues. In fact, it was a deliberate decision by County Leadership to disband the Auto Theft Unit during a stolen car wave due to FY 2021 budget cuts: https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2021/10/montgomery-co-man-recovers-his-own-stolen-car-from-dc/
"Montgomery County Police Department’s auto theft unit was disbanded earlier this year because of FY 2021 budget cuts."
So you and I agree that we should hire more police. The current one-party Democrat leadership won't increase the authorized size of the Force enough to address the rampant crime in MoCo. They're in charge. That's a political decision on their part not to increase it. Nothing baseless about what I'm saying at all. You shouldn't write it off as "more money" in the community: There are plenty of wealthy areas that don't have our crime problem. You shouldn't write it off as "more communication" either: People read still read the weekly crime reports as they always have.
The stats on stolen cars speak for themselves.
In 2019, there were 914 Motor Vehicle Thefts in MoCo.
In 2020, there were 1,178 Motor Vehicle Thefts in MoCo.
In 2021, there were 1,444 Motor Vehicle Thefts in MoCo.
For 2022: "As of June 6, there have been 511 auto thefts in the county this year, according to police spokesperson Carlos Cortes-Vazquez." (https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/06/10/county-police-launch-program-to-help-decrease-auto-thefts/)
Elrich defeated Blair, who ran on a strong public safety and equity platform in the Primary, by 32 votes.
So a lot of Elrich voters had their cars stolen in the past few years and they simply didn't care. It wasn't enough to make them vote for someone different in their own party's Primary and reject the failures of the incumbent. It probably won't be enough to make them vote for a Republican in the upcoming General either. That's absolutely a political decision, and not a sensible one in terms of public safety.
When the County Council is more than happy to shelter illegal aliens from the start, it's a wonderful catalyst and endorsement of the broken window theory. The message is out, hit MoCo without any moral hazard.
11:03 AM: "Because the problem isn't Democrats, it's more people in the community; more money in the community to make criminals hungrier to get some; more communication that informs about every criminal incident."
More people committing more crime requires having more police. That's obvious to everyone but the All-Democrat County Council apparently. "More Money" has absolutely nothing to do with it. There's plenty of crime in poorer areas as well. There are also wealthy areas without the crime problems Montgomery County has. So there goes that theory. As for "More Communication", this isn't an issue of perception. The crimes are actually occurring. They're brazen and they're violent, and they're happening in broad daylight in front of hundreds of people now as it just did in the Apple Store on Bethesda Row: Armed Robbery, Gold Glock. Extended Magazine. Not a moment's hesitation.
@1:58 PM: Exactly right.
@11:03 AM: Of course the problem is Democrats here. They run everything and they decide what to spend money on and what not to spend it on. The MoCo Police force isn't larger because the Democrats who run things in MoCo don't want to spend the money for it to be larger. A larger police force would be more effective at catching criminals and preventing crime. This isn't complicated. Stop trying to excuse the all-Democrat County Leadership from the blame they entirely deserve here.
11:03 " Because the problem isn't Democrats,"
right on cue, deflect and never take responsibility, that's the Democrat way.
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