Remember the Summer of 2020? Chaos and violence swept across the nation as looting and criminal activity were excused and even glorified in the same of the Black Lives Matter movement. Cities fought each other to see who could virtue signal the hardest, and Washington, D.C., managed to top them all. 

Unfortunately for those involved, actions do have consequences, and Mayor Muriel Bowser is learning that the hard way. Amidst a growing crime wave, including a car-jacking epidemic that victimized a U.S. Congressional member on Monday evening, the mayor of the nation's capital is complaining that she can't fill the ranks of her police department. 

DC’s mayor says nation’s capital is up to 400 cops short and “we have policies that make it difficult to recruit new officers.”pic.twitter.com/Qz0hIrrrd3

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) October 3, 2023

BOWSER: We need more officers, we don't have the officers that we need, and sadly, we've lost 300-400 officers in the last four years. We haven't had officers in our schools, and we have policies that make it difficult to recruit new officers. 

Bowser is obviously trying to pass the buck to the city council, which to be fair, is an absolute dumpster fire. That's the same body that tried recently to lower the punishment for carjacking even as carjacking continued to rage out of control. The U.S. Congress had to step in and override that move. 

Regardless, the mayor is rewriting history because there is one thing that has more to do with D.C. being unable to recruit officers than any other issue: The city's embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, Bowser actually commissioned a street painting in 2020 that read "Black Lives Matter" and "Defund the Police." The street itself was also renamed to Black Lives Matter Plaza. 

https://t.co/FDkat2AgHN pic.twitter.com/DVxQm6a94K

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 3, 2023

This is a pattern with Bowser. She does really destructive things and then cries about them as if she couldn't have prevented them. For example, D.C. is a so-called "sanctuary city." Yet, Bowser called for the National Guard to be sent in to deal with a relatively small influx of illegal immigrants. It's peak NIMBYism. She's all about "activism" until she has to abide by the consequences of said activism. 

If I were a police officer, there is nothing D.C. could do that could lure me there at that point. Why work in a far-left bastion that will throw you under the bus (including in prison for decades) at even the slightest hint of controversy? There's not enough money in the world that would make that worth it, especially when red states and red cities are offering far better opportunities. Who wants to get killed by some gang member for crap pay in a city that won't even have your back? 

The chickens have come home to roost, and frankly, I think the pain will have to get worse before any real lessons are learned. If the residents of D.C. keep electing far-left radicals, they will keep getting these kinds of results.