Democrats pushed to defund the police over much of the past year and a half. You even had people like Kamala Harris applauding the defunding — cutting millions — from the Los Angeles police.

But when some cities caved and started cutting back on the police, it didn’t end well. One of those cities was Burlington, Vermont — not a city that people necessarily think of as a high crime area. But residents and business owners ended up not feeling safe at night because the police department took such a hit from the defunding movement.

Far-left Democrats in Burlington, Vermont defunded the police in favor of “social and racial justice programs” and social workers.

But the city soon felt the disastrous consequences. pic.twitter.com/xD96nScaot

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 17, 2021

“Often just five officers are on shift for a city of more than 44,000 after Burlington’s leaders cut the police force by nearly 30 percent.” How can you cover all those people with that small a force? Of course, you couldn’t and hence, the problems. Their routine patrols stopped.

Routine patrols stopped, and morale sank.

“We don’t feel safe in the evenings,” one resident said. pic.twitter.com/SKBUEpfR9E

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 17, 2021

Then, not surprisingly, their officers left faster than anticipated because they didn’t feel supported in such an atmosphere and the officers who stayed had low morale. “It’s in rough shape,” one officer said, explaining that they didn’t feel they could police as effectively as they once could.

They hired social workers to deal with some of the calls, but again, not surprisingly there was still “a problem” and there were “unintended consequences.” Now they’re trying to hire officers back.

Routine patrols stopped, and morale sank.

“We don’t feel safe in the evenings,” one resident said. pic.twitter.com/SKBUEpfR9E

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 17, 2021

The acting police chief, John Murad, said that what they needed to do was fund the police; that the defund movement was a “grand experiment” that on a “national and local level” has “gone awry.”

No kidding. How could anyone not understand that it was a bad idea? This was completely predictable. Maybe it will now serve as a model of what not to do, but any rational-thinking city official should already have known that it was a very bad idea. Most Americans certainly understood it and spoke up loudly against it.

But liberals thought they’d bring in social workers, everyone would sing “Kumbaya,” hug, and crime would just melt away. They faced the hard truth that isn’t reality. The problem they may face now is: Who would work for them when they know that they are willing to make such bad moves? How secure can you feel your job is if they were already that ignorant? But at least they came to their senses and are trying to rectify the situation now. Some other liberal politicians and liberal cities still haven’t learned their lesson. They should take Burlington as an object lesson.