With so much drama in the O-V-P, It's kinda hard bein Kevin D-O-double-G this week. After getting a big shout out from Donald Trump via twitter, the now staunch conservative Yoder decided to tell the world how it really is inside the OVP, where Mexican drug cartels are creating a wasteland so toxic that Yoder has apparently been afraid to hold an open town hall.
From KCUR:
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., said Thursday morning that Mexican drug cartels are directly sending narcotics into Overland Park.
Appearing on Fox & Friends, Yoder, who represents Johnson and Wyandotte counties in the 3rd Congressional District, said the U.S. needs to spend $5 billion more, mostly for building a wall and new fencing, to prevent human trafficking and drugs from coming across the Mexican border. He specifically called out his hometown. "The Mexican cartels are sending this right to our neighborhoods in places like Overland Park, Kansas, where I live."
DAMN! This answer was justification for Yoder to go with Trump’s $5B addition to a border wall, after all, protecting Overland Park from becoming a war zone with Mexican cartels seems like an important thing to do.. but.. then someone contacted the Overland Park Police Department.
In a statement from the City of Overland Park:
Overland Park responded that the city doesn't have much drug crime, "which is why Overland Park has one of the lowest crime rates among similarly-sized communities," city spokesperson Meg Ralph said in a statement.
In fact, most drug crimes in Overland Park are small time. "Overland Park occasionally charges and prosecutes misdemeanor drug crimes," Ralph said. Major crimes are handed over to the DEA but "OPPD has no recent related cases."
According to the Overland Park crime reports, in the last week the city has suffered from roughly infinite times more vandalism crime reports and arrests than drugs, as, well, I can’t find any drug arrest.
While this doesn’t mean there are not those who use drugs in Overland Park, it appears as though the thought of a Mexican Drug Cartel pipeline into the community would certainly be news to the residents.
The Yoder campaign has backpedaled on his assessment, emphasizing the word “like”. Frankly, if more communities were “like” Overland Park, it would just be a sign that the problem Yoder is spending another $5B on to fix likely isn’t the problem he pretends it to be.