The woke mayor of Berkeley, Calif., who axed $10 million from the liberal bastion’s cop budget in 2020 has made an abrupt about-face and now wants to lead the charge against an alarming spike in crime.

“In Berkeley, my colleagues and I defunded $9,251,458 from the Berkeley Police Department, or 12% of the agency’s annual operating budget,” Jesse Arreguin wrote in a July 2020 San Francisco Chronicle column. ...

But some local merchants scoffed at the shift in posture, highlighting that Berkeley’s police ranks have thinned drastically in recent years and crime has predictably mushroomed because of it.

“Little late now, isn’t it?” said one downtown Berkeley merchant. “You bash cops, cut funds, and now you want to address it? It’s hilarious. This area was not like this five years ago. The business owners have had it.”