Why Your Vote Matters: Key Issues in Policing, Drug Policy, Education, and Border Security

A Guide to Voting Against Police Defunding, Liberal Drug Policies, and for Border Security and Parental Rights

It is unlikely that any subscribers of American Peace Officer are undecided on the issues, and it is probable that most have already early voted. This is for those of you who haven’t voted, don’t want to vote, or for those in your world who don’t know what to vote for or against. Cops can’t go to a barbeque without someone relitigating their tailgating ticket that they got after a rear-end collision. Friends and neighbors care about your opinion; just don’t do this on duty on the side of the road.

Vote against police defunding

The defunding movement was a direct attack on policing with predictable results. The epicenter of this terrible idea was Minnesota and the basis was the in custody death of George Floyd. He died with three times the fatal dose of the Schedule II drug Fentanyl in his system resisting arrest and being restrained by officers awaiting an ambulance called for his care. Drug tolerance is a dog that won’t hunt and perhaps the most unscientific offering in this debate. Yet, even if I am completely wrong, there is no basis for the mass psychosis of 2020, the billions of dollars of destruction, the untold dozens upon dozens of lives lost caused by this single event.

Cities like Austin, Texas are still reeling from the effects of defunding and then attempting to fund the departments again. Burlington, Vermont is still dealing with the reduction of their force by a steep reduction in quality of life and an intolerable increase in crime. The police defunding movement is still on the ballot and it is a bad deal for everyone.

Vote against anyone who supports the Justice in Policing Act

Karen Bass, today the Mayor of Los Angeles, started the ball rolling in the Senate with the support of then-Senator Kamala Harris. Introduced again in 2024, the ACLU stated:

“Nearly four years since George Floyd’s murder, systemic racism and disproportionate use of lethal force continue to plague America’s approach to policing. The recent killing of Sonya Massey in her home is a painful reminder that the killing of Black people in America continues unabated, and that national change is long overdue.”

The NAACP states: “If passed, the legislation would take significant steps to hold police accountable by ending qualified immunity, limiting the transfer of equipment used on battlefields from the Pentagon to local police departments, enhancing transparency to increase accountability, and more.”

President Biden has consistently pledged to sign this bill as soon as it reaches his desk. In short, this would represent a severe violation of the Tenth Amendment and mark the effective end of local governments’ control over their law enforcement agencies. Centralized control of policing is a Marxist aspiration, and this bill is for those who find local public safety as being in the way.

Photo by Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash

Vote against liberalization of drug policy

In 2022, the United States experienced the peak of drug death overdoses with 111,000 American dying due to drugs. The fact that Fentanyl was a major driver discounts the other 40,000 or so overdoses. In 1994, the crack cocaine prevalence led families to seek out their relatives in abandoned homes transitioned illegally to crack houses. Without a monumental death toll, it was obvious that people were living for the substance rather then their family and everything positive in their life.

Consider this: the death toll on the day of Pearl Harbor was 2,403 and on the day of 9/11 was 2,996. Those events, 60 years apart brought our nation together and united us for foreign expeditionary wars. Please also consider that we are losing 9,250 Americans monthly to drug overdoses. That’s 71.33% more monthly than the worst attacks on America combined and we are considering legalizing weed in many more states.

Weed is not what it used to be. THC potency was about 3-4% when I came on. Today it is five or six times and frequently hitting 25%. Mental health issues are considered a priority today in our nation, but high potency weed and schizophrenia are like fire and gasoline. It is also the worst prescription for anxiety but it is actually advertised as a solution.

Government will spend about $4.50 for every dollar it collects, youth suicide will increase, the black market will grow with lower prices and higher potency, and like crack cocaine, we will see the lost potential of so many lives. I don’t care if some post-modern hippies roll a joint full of shake or spark a bowl. Can we just wait until drug deaths drop below 50,000 per year?

Vote for border enforcement

Every naturalized immigrant deserves your vote to preserve our border and affirm the legal process to become a citizen. My mother went through the legal process to live and work in the United States. She says, “Back then, if you had a pimple, you were rejected.” The process of becoming a citizen was even more demanding. Any consideration of any amnesty will disenfranchise every naturalized citizen. Compared to keeping all the illegal aliens here, deportation is a bargain.

Vote for parental rights in education

During the last six or seven years, parental trust in the teachers and the administrations of schools has cratered for good reasons. Annually we spend $880,000,000,000 in tax dollars to fund institutions who currently experience a truancy rate of 25%. According to the NAEP, in 2022, 83% of black students, 79% of Hispanic students and 58% of white students were not proficient in fourth grade reading.

Too many schools have overreached their authority to withhold information from parents on the status of their children on the basis of ‘safety’ even to the point of permitting a child to assume a new identity. Parents who speak out and contest ludicrous ideas in school board meetings have been threatened, condemned, and targeted, even by federal agencies who have zero jurisdiction. Support parents who want liberty and freedom to reign.

Vote to protect women in women’s sports

During my career I worked with Title XI offices at one university and two colleges. You could never have persuaded me ten years ago that the issue today would be men in women’s sports. You don’t have to be a pattern recognition expert to realize that these natal males would never podium competing against their own sex. However, the humiliation inflicted on young girls, both on the field and in the locker rooms, is reflective of the most anti-feminist policy that any politician could support.

Who to vote for

The best advice I ever received came from the pulpit. “I want you to vote for God,” said the pastor about 24 years ago. I hope you find an undecided voter, or a reluctant voter, and share that with them and encourage them to engage in the virtue of voting.

Please keep all law enforcement officers in your prayers.

---

Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com. His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.

He also serves as the Director of Engagement for Shepherds and Sheepdogs, LTD on the team hosting the inaugural conference in Orlando, May 12-14. Three days of exceptional speakers who will help you revolutionize the way we treat, train, and lead! Click below to find out more.

Shepherds and Sheepdogs |

References

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-responds-to-senate-reintroduction-of-george-floyd-justice-in-policing-act-of-2024-calls-on-congress-to-address-police-brutality

https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-applauds-senate-reintroduction-george-floyd-justice-policing-act

https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/