DEALING WITH THE POLICE
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich continues to show contempt towards our Police Department, stressing diversity, equity, and inclusion above respect for our officers. As a good Leftist, he sees things in terms of race, not character. His focus on reimagining policing has had a negative impact on our kids’ safety in their schools. You can help the Committee for Better Government limit Elrich to two terms, but you must act soon. Ten thousand valid signatures must be gathered by August 2024. (See below).
Last week, Marc Elrich held a media event to announce his nominee for Police Chief. At one point, he went off script (5:41) and said, “We went through a difficult period of dealing with police in this county and how we wanted to re-envision some of what we were doing. And those are hard conversations. They weren’t just hard conversations in Montgomery County, these are hard conversations all across the country.” Yes, “dealing with police” is his focus.
The first thing on Elrich’s scripted speech when introducing Assistant Chief Yamada was (7:16) “So I’m honored to announce the nomination of Assistant Chief, Marc Yamada, as Chief of Police for Montgomery County’s Police Department. If confirmed by the County Council, Marc Yamada will make history as the first Asian American and first Japanese American to lead MCPD. And this is AAPI Heritage month. So, I think it’s worth noting the importance of this. A lot of people talk about diversity and the importance of diversity. This is one of those steps that people will be able to look at and say, ‘Montgomery County talks about it, Montgomery County also does it.’”
Yep, we hired the Asian guy! Elrich is concerned about how he looks in the eyes of the Left. Only after he pointed out Yamada’s ethnicity did Elrich then talk about Yamada’s job history, awards, and the fact that he had saved three lives.
Marc Elrich’s bad policies affect our children’s safety. Fox5DC reported: “County Executive Marc Elrich essentially ended the SRO program by pulling funding for it in the FY22 budget in March 2015.” (This was after the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014.) The Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) school officer program was changed from using School Resource Officers (SROs), who were assigned to one high school, which was that officer’s priority and base, to Community Engagement Officers (CEOs) who are not dedicated to one school but move around their assigned school cluster.
Recently, there has been an increase in the number of threats of violence. The children at Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda Elementary School and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School were disrupted. And the police had to expend major resources to address those threats. Elrich’s policy is not working. We think SROs need to be reinstated.
When asked about returning SROs to the schools, Assistant Chief Yamada said that he needs to talk with Acting Superintendent Felder as to whether there will be SROs, CEOs, or some hybrid in the schools. Yamada sees a lot of benefit to having officers inside the schools. He is looking for input from the community ([email protected]). We wish him good luck as he deals with Felder, Elrich and the County Council.
Marc Elrich wants to run for a third 4-year term as County Executive in 2026. Are you tired of dealing with his far-Left policies? Please volunteer to hold him to two terms.
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Lori Jaffe is the Party Secretary for the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, volunteer coordinator and Member of the Executive Board. She can be reached at [email protected]