Kimberling City, MO — Earlier this month, without warning, the taxpayers of Kimberling City found out that the police department they have been paying for “protection,” no longer wished to serve them. The entire department, including the police chief and every single officer on the force, turned in their resignation letters and abandoned their positions.
The move caught the entire town, including the mayor and the sheriff off guard as there was no warning given or demands made prior to the mass exodus.
“Have I ever said no to you guys? No, I haven’t. So how can I explain this right here? I have no idea,” said Mayor Bob Fritz, who told Ozarks First that he was shocked and disappointed when he received police chief Craig Alexander’s resignation letter.
Since the 23 of August, the town has been without a police chief and days later, the rest of the department followed suit. The mayor says he is working on filling the positions.
“A mutual aid agreement with Stone County Sheriffs Office and the City of Branson West in that they’ll assist Kimberling City until our police department is at full capacity. As of today, we have eight resumes and some of them are unbelievable. And like I told the city administrator, start setting up interviews and everything too. I think we can have this taken care of , I’m hoping in the next few weeks or so.”
“It will be a struggle to fill the police department back up with qualified officers, but hopefully they can start working on that soon and get that accomplished,” Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said of the resignations. “Until then we will be answering all the calls in Kimberling City, we can’t enforce city ordinances, but any other calls we will be handling at this time.”
After they resigned, the officers and the chief cited a low pay rate and not having the proper tools to do the job.
As we reported in July, according to a recent report from Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), police departments from coast to coast are having an extremely difficult time keeping officers on the force. The staggering numbers have many alarmed, but is it really cause for concern?
Perf reports that the rate of retirements at some departments rose 45% compared with the previous year. According to the group’s research, at the same time, hiring slowed by 5%. Using the rise in violent crime across the country and these startling rates as the impetus behind a new spending plan, president Joe Biden recently approved the use of $350 billion in Covid-19 relief funding to hire more law-enforcement personnel.
Though calls for police accountability have been becoming louder over the last few years, the movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd set off a powder keg which has led to historical reform from coast to coast. As a result of the push to be held accountable for their actions, cops are upset and are leaving the force in record numbers.
Naturally, police are playing the victim here and claiming the calls to hold them accountable amount to a war on cops and this is driving them out.
While the town struggles to fill positions of their police force, it is important to point out that people aren’t going around breaking the law without cops to stop them — thus highlighting the revenue collection mission of police.
Drug offenses, parking violations, and traffic citations are not so much crimes, as they are streams of revenue for the city. They are also the reason for the majority of police harassment within particular communities; harassment that is being proven entirely unnecessary as the town continues to function just fine without cops.
What’s more, the idea that police protect you is a misconception, as they will seldom prevent violence. They normally show up after the violence or crime has been committed and then try and find a culprit, or not.
The average response time to a 9-1-1 call is 10 minutes nationwide; for poor areas, that time quadruples. In some cases, the dispatchers do not even take the caller seriously and the victim ends up dead when a crime could have actually been prevented.
The reality is that police act as revenue collectors for the state and solely exist to enforce the law only.
In a perfect world, police would show up prior to a crime and stop it, or at least during a crime, but this is simply not a reality.
Police in America also do not “protect and serve.” If you doubt this claim simply refer to Warren v. District of Columbia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the police do not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm.
Imagine a police force that acted more like firefighters or EMTs. Firefighters don’t have to go door to door looking for fires, in order to be effective. EMTs, just like firefighters wait for a call before reacting and their services are oft proven invaluable contrary to that of police work. Perhaps this recent mass resignation can be used to channel this notion to the forefront and completely revamp the idea of policing in the land of the free. Perhaps.
Article posted with permission from Matt Agorist
‘Entire Police Department Abandons Their Jobs Permanently & Town Doesn’t Descend Into Chaos’
Permitless carry of pistols in most public places, and private sale of firearms, are both legal in Missouri.
Problem solved.
Nice hate creed on cops, Matt. I had a chance to observe and work with law enforcement officers for 25 years. In my opinion, there are good cops and there are bad cops. When people complain about the Blue Wall, they don’t realize that in large part the Blue Wall is composed of management. They are the one shielding bad cops as much or more than the rank and file. Who wants to work with a jerk that is liable to, at a bare minimum, get you in a wrestling match where you end your shift with at a minimum, a dirty uniform or at a maximum, dead. The best patrol cop I ever met took a pay cut to work as a courtroom deputy so he wouldn’t have to go on patrol any more with an out of control department where hazing folks was encouraged. That was the department that countenanced an officer whose arrestees always resisted arrest after being handcuffed. Always. Of course for those of us who weren’t vitally interested in avoiding paying judgments for aggravated assault under authority of law enforcement, it certainly aroused deep suspicion that maybe something was wrong with that cop and the department.
Then we have this piece of trash writing that wants us to believe that without any police force there have been no problems whatsoever, attempting to lead us to the post hoc ergo propter hoc conclusion that a viable police force is not necessary for public safety. Except that law enforcement is present for criminal acts. The out of jurisdiction cops are not enforcing building codes or parking violations (I’ll be that is hurting the city budget big time) or loud parties (probably not a big problem in a town of 2,000 comprised mostly of retirees.) BUT, they are enforcing the few criminal acts that might occur in a small enclave of retired folks.
Maybe the city would be better off instead of hiring new cops with, of course, glowing resumes, contract with the county sheriff to provide police protection. A political entity of 2,000 shouldn’t need a large department, especially with a population of retirees. Maybe it is all those rowdy out of state folk from Branson that are causing all the crime in Mayberry West.
In my opinion, this article is a pretty clumsy hatchet job. Perhaps we should be pleased that it is so clumsy. A more skillfully written piece might have actually misled us into wrong conclusions about it.
Hi. I’d love to know what happened. Why did the police all quite?? Are you people pushing this genocide on everyone? My husband & I are considering moving in to there. I want to know what’s going on..
Hire people that are not military trained and please don’t use Old school police tactics cause that’s why the police are hated so much! Use professional people who respect others GOD fearing people
Me
No problem with public employee unions in that town. Good for them. California’s can only dream of that scenario.
I think it’s a shame the way you said that the police were playing the victim. They are the victim. George Floyd was a criminal. The cops in that case were criminals. If you’re going to report something, report it. If you want to say that you feel like they are playing the victims, keep that to your social club. If you want to be a writer, stick to the facts. It’s a shame we can’t have unbiased news anymore.
Unbiased “news” from Citizens Opinion?
Hahahahahaha!!! Your hilarious Lea!!!
The cops didn’t do anything. George Floyd was dying of a fentanyl overdose when they showed up. They’re not doctors. As far as they knew he was just acting goofy and stupid and resisting arrest.
Lol, what a puff piece, I live in Blue Eye about 25 min south of Kimberling City, So convenient that the writer left out key information such as the Less than 2000 people population, the demographic of retirees mostly and the slightly higher cost of living when compared to neighboring Branson because it is a desirable low crime,lake and recreation area, or the fact that because of its small size that one officer from both counties could easily police it. a far cry from the demographics of an actual city! Do journalists even bother to do thier homework anymore? Or are y’all just lamebrains pushing a bad agenda
Lamebrains pushing a bad agenda.
Cops will be painted with the same brush as the least of them until the Unions and the thin blue line stop protecting the bad apples. Sad but true.
The falsehood in the story is not that there are no police, just not the City’s police There is law enforcement providing services in this city, both the Stone County Sheriff’s Office and the Branson West Police. The author is trying to make us believe that there is no policing and that everything is going on as normal.
Your writer for this journal, profiles the police as they are all bad, there for i shall profile this writer…sounds like I’m reading something out of CNN, SAD
This town will be a target for opportunist criminals !
Loren
Tommy!
A. Kimberling City is 98% White.
B. George Floyd wasn’t White.
C. George Floyd wasn’t murdered. He overdosed on fentanyl after being detained for trying to pass off counterfeit bills and resisting arrest.
D. You cannot extrapolate results from a small group to a larger one.
E. You cannot extrapolate results from a White population to a non-White or racially-mixed one.
Finally, there is no effort to reform police. What is going on is an effort to have a police state for White people and legalized anarchy for non-Whites when they prey on each other and White people. You shouldn’t be giving oxygen to that unless you hate America and White people and want to see them ruled over by tribal gangs of blacks or hispanics who can operate with legal impunity with lifetimes of imprisonment for any White person who dares to defend himself or his loved ones.
We will believe your speculations about the cause of death after you hold your breath for 8 minutes.
I’ll take you up on that. I will,this very minute, have someone kneel on the back of my neck for 8 minutes just like in the bodycam footage of Derek Chauvin and George Floyd,if you will agree to simultaneously take the same dose of fentanyl that the coroner’s report says George Floyd had in his system at the time of his death.
That challenge goes out to anybody who seriously believes George Floyd was murdered,rather than committed suicide by swallowing his own stash.
If it’s racist to say that,then fine,I’m a PROUD racist at that point. Now prove that African and Latino countries have less violent crime than White ones do.
You can’t or you wouldn’t be attempting to poison the well to avoid discussing demographic FACTS.
I’m sorry I cannot and will not agree with you! These men and women serve proudly and risk their lives every shift!
You make them sound like DEMONS!
If this is truly the way you and the people feel then I do understand the Police for walking off.
When you file your grievance against them, be sure these remarks go too!!
Shame on you!