Blue States – those led by Democrats – continue to hobble law enforcement, a hangover from 2020 when police were everywhere attacked. In Maine, the hobbling process continues – a Democrat legislature and Governor daily endangering our public safety. Simply put: They do not care.
Big shifts, like Maine’s Democrats deciding to bar State and local police from cooperating with federal law enforcement to enforce immigration laws and make Maine safer, are a travesty, inviting illegals and drug traffickers into the State.
Equally indefensible is the inaction by Maine’s Democrat governor, legislature, and last Federal US Attorney to prioritize radiating, relentlessly fatal drug crime. All 16 counties are ravaged, up to 70 kids dying per month, and traffickers continue to institutionalize their hold – tighten their grip – on Maine.
The effect of Democrat indifference is shocking. Major trafficking groups – transnational organized crime from Dominican Republic, Mexico, China, El Salvador, and Venezuela are all here, putting whole countries in fear.
More than 10,000 overdoses in Maine last year, 600 dead, and the Governor calls this success. She pumps 20,000 units of Narcan into police, EMT, and schools. Meantime, follow-on crimes – assaults, robberies, burglaries – continue to grow.
Often missed in this Blue State carnage, which replicates itself in Philadelphia’s badlands, inner city Chicago, and parts of Los Angeles, is the devastation of “a thousand cuts” to police authority, funding, and power – to keep citizens safe.
By empowering illegal aliens, drug traffickers, and gangs with impunity – penalizing officers who use sound techniques to save lives, stopping traffickers and taking down stash houses, the Democrat leaders are complicit in those deaths, as well as the ambushes and demoralization of Maine’s police.
Maine police are drying up; local police authorities in counties north to Aroostook, south to Cumberland undermanned. Portland is desperate for funding and recruits, down between 35 and 50 officers, as riot and political violence potential grows.
Recently, a Democrat DA in southern Maine, close to the Democrat governor, herself investigated for cocaine use, and attorney general who chases oil companies before traffickers, all pushing no bail, more needles and Narcan, said she does not see Chinese drug trafficking in her county. What is she on?
Fentanyl kills hundreds of Maine kids each year, dozens a month, many in her country – and it comes from China, with the precursors. Chinese grow houses, rural counties hit hardest, are all over the State. Drug money and drug traffickers ALL pass through her county. This is why Mainers fume; we hate being lied to.
Sometimes it is the smallest things that hurt most. Maine does not allow their hard-working, underfunded, overstretched State Police to freely use license plate detectors, one of the fastest ways to catch a murderer, assault suspect, trafficker.
New Hampshire, by contrast, protects citizens by purging license plate photos within three minutes, no warrant needed, allowing police officers to quickly use the data to stop those committing horrible crimes. Protections are many, but police are empowered.
Maine Democrats are way out of the mainstream, still deliberately hobbling Maine’s local, state, and federal law enforcement – many jurisdictions overrun with anti-law enforcement money, paid propaganda, protestors, prosecutors, media, and – yes – Democrat politicians. The frustration of Mainers is boiling over.
Bottomline: President Trump and Rule of Law Governors in Republican-led States are creating deterrence, strengthening public safety, reducing fear, while Democrat-controlled states, like distraught Maine, have leaders who appease, create suffering.
Good news: In 2026, Mainers and others will replace these miserable, low-integrity, disrespectful, and dangerous appeasers with leaders who know what they are doing, respect law enforcement, and value public safety. That is why I am running to be Maine’s next make-it-happen, “no excuses” Governor. Mainers are tired of leaders who indulge traffickers and hobble law enforcement.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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