In the California city of West Hollywood, the City Council began toying with the idea of replacing armed police officers back in 2013. (The progressives there were well ahead of the curve in terms of the defund the police movement.) Things really ramped up last year, however, when the council approved a “block by block” program that would replace many police officers with unarmed “security ambassadors.” They would supposedly intervene in potentially violent situations and “defuse tensions.” So how is that working out? At Townhall, our colleague Julio Rosas checks in with some of the recent action. A pedestrian filmed a car coming to a stop at an intersection. A man walks up and begins kicking in the car door. The driver gets out and the two begin beating on each other. Only a few yards away, two “security ambassadors” are seen standing there and watching while doing nothing. This vignette sums up the entire defunding movement nicely.

The city of West Hollywood cut funding for four Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies to patrol in the area and replaced them with unarmed “security ambassadors.” New video taken inside the city shows an assault taking place mere feet away from security ambassadors, who do not take action to step in.

The incident occurred last week at the intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards, outside the Los Angeles County sheriff’s West Hollywood station, according to KABC. The footage shows a man a white sedan stopped in a crosswalk. A man kicks the car before the driver opens the door and gets out of the car where the two men fight as security ambassadors watch from the sidewalk.

The person who caught the altercation on video posted it to Twitter.

Dramatic footage of unarmed safety ambassadors in West Hollywood selflessly jumping into action to thwart a violent assault. pic.twitter.com/rsJTZZjXUJ

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) April 28, 2023

Admittedly, there is significant context missing from this episode. We don’t know if the door-kicker was just some random lunatic or if he was attempting a robbery. Perhaps the two men were acquainted and had a beef with each other. But whatever the motivation, a crime was taking place in broad daylight and the unarmed security ambassadors wound up being nothing more than spectators.

Perhaps this was a case of discretion being the better part of valor. If they had tried to intervene, they may have wound up taking a beating as well. But if armed, well-trained police officers had stepped in, the fight would have been over quickly.

City officials continue to defend the program, however. After a previous incident of armed robbery out on the streets of West Hollywood, Mayor Sepi Shyn dismissed the idea that the security ambassador program is failing. She declared that the plan is “working” because “crime has gone down.” She then immediately admitted that crime “is going to happen.” She blamed this on a lack of gun control laws and guns being “everywhere.” She managed to avoid blaming Donald Trump, but it must have been tempting.

It’s difficult to judge the Mayor’s claims against the available statistics. Robberies in West Hollywood are actually down slightly from what was seen at the height of the pandemic. But they are also well above what was seen ten years ago. Also, we already know that Democrats regularly lie about crime rates because it’s politically convenient to do so. We hear this all of the time from KJP in the White House briefing room. If a problem is politically inconvenient, simply pretend that it doesn’t exist.

Other cities have already begun abandoning all of the police defunding nonsense in the face of public outrage over spiraling crime rates. Many, including Los Angeles, have reversed course and increased their police budgets. But West Hollywood appears to be locked in some sort of progressive fantasy land. If you’re planning a trip to Southern California any time soon, you might want to avoid that area unless your rental car has bulletproof windows.