The NYPD is now a sad shadow of what it used to be, consisting of the smallest amount of officers it's had in decades. 

The New York Post reported that the problem is so bad that officers aren't serving their full 20 years to get their pensions: 

The number of cops quitting before they reach the 20 years required to receive their full pensions also skyrocketed from 509 in 2020 to 1,040 so far this year — an alarming 104% increase, the data show.

The years of departures and lack of replacements are now taking a toll, forcing the cops who remain on the job to work “inhumane amounts of forced overtime,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said.

Democrats who run the city are blaming the belt-tightening on the migrant crisis, which is hysterical given it's their party that's been fueling it. 

But it's not just the punishing hours and lack of help, it's the fact that New York has become a dangerous place to be a police officer. Not only do they face down a city where its residents hold a fierce hatred of them, but their own city administration isn't too fond of them either. Officers are reportedly "afraid to make arrests": 

The exodus began after Minnesota cop Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020, triggering nationwide protests and calls to defund the police. Anti-cop hostility, bail reform, and rising crime have fed into frustration among the NYPD rank and file.

Assaults against NYPD cops have skyrocketed by more than 25% this year, police data obtained by The Post last month revealed.

But New York is just a slice of a much larger crime-ridden pie that beleaguered officers are having to deal with. As Ward Clark noted in his own article, crime rates are on the rise across the nation. Not only have soft-on-crime policies crippled police departments in big cities, the steep rise in looting incidents is out of control, and events such as the Israel/Hamas war have caused assaults against Jewish people to rise as well. 

In cities like San Francisco, where crime is almost protected, assaults and theft have almost become a part of everyday life...at least when there isn't a communist dictator to clean up the streets for. 

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy put the Democrat strategy toward crime best when he called it a “Hear no evil, see no evil, prosecute no evil" kind of approach. 

Being a police officer in a big blue city just isn't worth it anymore, because you're not just a villain to the criminal element anymore, you're the villain to many a mainstream news and cultural outlet, and your own city. 

Unless a drastic change occurs, I wouldn't be surprised if New York City sees a crime wave the likes it hasn't witnessed in years within the next five to ten years as officers leave in droves and criminals continue to become far more brave and confident. I expect murders and assaults to see a hefty spike. I expect looting and theft to become commonplace. 

And I expect Democrats to put the blame on everyone but themselves, but on the Democrats is where the blame firmly rests. 

A city's blue line is the line between chaos and order, and Democrats have spent a good amount of time and effort to erase it. The sad part is that most of these politicians who have caved to these far leftist groups won't see much comeuppance for it, but the residents will. Some will pay dearly for it. 

Big city officers have a very heavy job, and they need the backing of the city and its people in order to do their jobs properly. If this is to be fixed, Democrats need to ignore the radicals, prioritize building a police force, and defend their officers against a media that has become hungry for anti-police stories. 

If they don't, officers will abandon the city to the criminal element, and the criminal element will become the true rulers of the city, not the Democrat politicians.