Is this the onset of a trend?

I am sorry to say this, but oh well. If it weren't for a pansy society that we live in, it would not be necessary to have almost as many police as there are citizens. We have voluntarily gave up our powers to police ourselves in exchange for an officer on almost every corner righting tickets for j walking and hoping they get a chance to bust some punks for smokin the refer. Please don't get me wrong, I have a very high respect for our officers, I just don't think we need to buy into this hype about a community be safer because there are more officers there. As a whole we would be a lot safer if we could police ourselves, and by that I don't mean have a bunch of vigilantes out playing The Punisher.


ETA: I Know that some will read this and think that I am against law enforcement, but that is not the case by any means.

 

This response is probably going to be unpopular...but, as far as I'm concerned, it's just another political scare tactic.

 

A budget scare tactic.

 

Coos County lost over 30 deputies last year due to cuts in timber revenue. The Sheriffs Department had to decide which calls they would go out on and to leave most minor complaints to the citizens to resolve. I haven't seen the big increase in crime they were predicting as of yet.

I believe in the existence of law enforcement when situations are beyond a citizens scope, especially when dealing with drug crime and domestic abuse and abuse on children. I am not sure we need law enforcement spending time on seat belt law and making sure the teenagers are not spinning their wheels in the parking lot.

The public image of the law enforcement service is a key factor in whether citizens (those who are not related to or employed in law enforcement) voice support for more funding, it seems those voices were few and far between when they removed those officers in Coos County.

Hopefully the law enforcement folks see that when dealing with the public.

 

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/708475.html

This is what I mean by communities policing themselves. I hate to see anything come to a life being taken, but how many lives would be taken once criminals realized that good poople aren't f ing around anymore, enough is enough.

 

Naturally, this will create more responsible, aware citizens.

 

Only as many that need to until the criminals realize they are out numbered. I still believe there a far more good people put there than there are bad.

 

from the clip:

I have my own thoughts on the validity of his statement...

:sleep:

 

I live in rural Thurston County,, and we've been short of officers for a long time. There are only two patrol officers detailed to cover the entire area north of I-5 and east of Budd Inlet/Olympia. There should be four. Many breakins, vandalisms, car prowls, insane drivers racing at 100+ mph down 35 mph streets....

But what I wonder is WHY this stinking county spends SO MUCH on nonsense things, like fleets of brand new very expensive vehicles (with ALL the add ons and options), replacing perfectly good and serviceable units far more often than needed (and selling off the yet-in-good condition ones for a song). And WHY does this county employ so many "code enforcement" people who drive around in some of those new cars looking for people who've built a fence, have a couple dead cars in the yard, cut down a tree, replace the window assemblies on their house without a permit? Seems if we've got the bucks to spend on those sorts of things, what is really needed is a bit of shifting about to reallocate some to have at least a handful of patrol officers available. Oh, and a SERIOUS look needs to be had of the sorts of inmates at the county jail. I rather suspect a largish number of them are non-violent offenders who would better serve the community on the outside, rather than taking our tax monies to incarcerate them. Armed robbers, rapists, sure, lock them up. But the goofball with a dime bag of weed, why do we need to spend the cash to keep HIM locked up?

Of course, as word gets out on such cutbacks, citizens will holler NO NO and perhaps approve some further means of allowing ourselves to be fleeced to cover this. Will we actually trim the fat from other parts of the county government? Not bloody likely. Not with THIS lot in charge. But hey, when MY available cash is less than ample, I don't go off buying NEW cars when the old one still runs like a top. So its ten years old. It does everything a new one will at one-fifth the cost. I do notice there are a lot of Thurston County Sheriffs riding round in brand new Dodge sedans with hot mag wheels and fat tyres.... and I see a whole lot of the retired TC Sheriff's patrol cars still happily driving about the county, obviously serving the private citizens who paid a few hundred for them. If our stupidvisors were to mind MY money they cheerfully steal from me annually the way I mind what they leave in my hands, we'd not be listening to this sad song. I'd like to see the lot of them tossed out, but when 58% of the workforce in this county work for government at some level, that won't be happening any time soon. THEY like to see big government county supervisors in place... just like big government queens, er, governors, and senators, and representatives...... no tea party on the horizon, must be time to look for a new place.

 

That article really seems to demonize the delivery driver and says the clean record gang bangers were just young innocent kids with hopes, dreams, and a future

 

How did it demonize the driver? It said he was well within his scope of the law do do what he felt was necessary. The article also mentioned that one of the kids had gang ties.

 

One concern I have is that this gang related punk was planning on becoming a army ranger, the few months of military training he would go through is not enough to wash out his years(possibly?) of gang related acts. over in iraq, iran, and afgan, they are seeing gang tags all over from the US military that have passed through the areas. So what happens when he gets out of the service? is he a better person or a better trained punk? And if he was willing to assult a pizza man for pizza(?) what would he do to get your car, inside your house, to get your wife or daughter? as far as im concerned, good job pizza man.

 

To protect the community, I would like to see as many police on the streets as possible.

Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Keith

 

I'm sure I well catch crap for this statement, but I believe that.

Law enforcement has become "big business"
What percentage of LEO man hours are spent writing revenue generating tickets vs responding to real crime? How many management type LEO's spend countless hours justifying there own jobs.

Incarceration has become "big business"
How full would the prisons be if all the people their for minor drug related offenses or mental health issues got treatment instead of incarceration? Maybe reinstate the Death Penalty for crimes like murder and kidnapping.

And the biggest waste of tax payer money is the cost of education. Good teachers deserve good pay, and they get good pay for the 183 days a year that the work. The admin side is so heavy with waste I can't believe it.

rant off. Take meds!

 

This is what happens when orginizations become "top heavy".
My friends who are LEOs would much rather not simply be revenue generators, and would much rather take care of the communities and put (scumbags, as one calls 'em) away.

 

I have seen them do this in Clark County WA, and in Marion County OR. they use the cutting of police and other emergency service's as a tactic to pass tax increases. Clark county did the same thing with our schools, they would threaten to double class size if they didn't get 10 million for a new high school. Once they'd get their money and before they'd even finish building the school, it would come out that it wasn't going to be big enough, so they'd ask for more money to park module building in the yard. This is the same group that spent 5 million bucks, on research to see if we need a new I-5 bridge. I could have told them they needed one for only a million.