Will police layoffs lead to chaos and anarchy?

Will police layoffs lead to chaos and anarchy?

Thousands of police officers have been laid off all across America since the current economic crisis began. Thousands more are getting ready to be laid off. So could we be on the verge of a new era of chaos and anarchy in America as crime runs wild and there are just far too few police to respond to it all?
That is the message that one blood-smeared billboard in Stockton, California is trying to get across. Paid for by the Stockton, California police union, the message of the billboard is chillingly clear: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops."
As state, city and local governments across the United States continue to be devastated by the ongoing economic crisis, budget cuts are becoming much deeper and police forces have suddenly become a very popular target.
Officer Steve Leonesio, the president of the Stockton Police Officers Association, has announced that the police union plans to spend approximately $20,000 on at least 20 more billboards.
Why is the union putting up all of these billboards?
Well, it turns out that Stockton has been considering a plan to lay off 53 police officers in an effort to eliminate a $23 million budget deficit.
But law enforcement in Stockton has already been cut to the bone. Recently, the Stockton Police Department dropped this bombshell: "We absolutely do not have any narcotics officers, narcotics sergeants working any kind of investigative narcotics type cases at this point in time."
Do you think drug dealers will be flocking to Stockton after they hear that?
But the truth is that so many of these local governments around the nation are just flat broke at this point. Even major cities are having to admit that they have accumulated such large debts that they cannot even afford to provide the most basic services any longer.
In Oakland, California the battle over police layoffs has made national headlines over the past couple of weeks. Oakland has laid off 80 police officers, and now the police chief says that there are some crimes that his department simply will not be able to respond to.
In fact, Chief Anthony Batts has compiled a list of exactly 44 situations, including grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism, that his officers will not be available to handle any longer.

What in the world?
Once upon a time in America you could get a police officer to come out for just about anything - including for getting a cat down out of a tree. But those days are long gone. Today it is very hard to get a police officer to come out for anything short of murder.
The following is a partial list of crimes that police officers in Oakland will no longer be responding to: burglary, theft, embezzlement, grand theft, false information to peace officer, required to register as sex or arson offender, AND loud music to name a few. Not that Oakland wasn't already a mess, but now how long do you think it will be before total chaos and anarchy reigns on the streets of Oakland?
But Oakland is far from alone.
The Sheriff's Department in Ashtabula County, Ohio has been slashed from 112 to 49 deputies, and there is now just one vehicle remaining to patrol all 720 square miles of the county. So what are the citizens of that county supposed to do to protect themselves? Well, when asked about what they should do, Judge Alfred Mackey gave  this stunning piece of advice: "Arm themselves."
Is American society degenerating into a "Road Warrior-style" wasteland where we are all left to fend for ourselves? Consider this:
*Acting State Police director Jonathon Monken has announced that the Illinois State Police will lay off more than 460 troopers and close five regional headquarters by this fall.
*Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford has proposed a plan to lay off 40 police officers.
*The police department in Vallejo, California will temporarily suspend its K-9 and SWAT programs at the end of the month in a move to delay officer layoffs.
*Last year, 18 special police units in Toledo, Ohio  including the gang task force and the mounted patrol were eliminated or  downsized in an effort to replace the 130 patrol officers who were laid off because of a $20.7 million budget deficit.
*Of 315 municipalities the New Jersey State Policemen's union canvassed, more than half indicated that they were planning to lay off police officers.
*Four police officers in one town in New Jersey were greeted at work this past Monday morning with notices informing them that they will be laid off on August 31st.
*Police in Phoenix, Arizona have been told that more than 400 officers could be impacted by layoffs if "the worst case scenario" plays out.
    *Police and firefighters in Flint, Michigan decided that layoffs were preferable to taking a 15 percent pay and benefits cut.
*The city of Maywood, California laid off all 68 of its employees July 1st and is now "contracting out" police services.
*In Colorado Springs, dozens of police positions are going unfilled and the police helicopters were put up for sale on the Internet.
The sad thing is that as local police forces across America are being stripped down or dismantled, many communities are opening their arms wide to increased federal law enforcement "assistance."
In recent years, we have seen a large number of examples where the U.S. military is being used for domestic law enforcement, which is supposed to be against the law. In addition, federal government agencies are increasingly taking over the financing, training and  even command of local law enforcement agencies.
This commentary was posted on “The Economic Collapse” blog. Link is: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/will-thousands-of-police-layoffs-unleash-chaos-and-anarchy-across-america

Scott Walker's real agenda

So here’s how "small government" types like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Michigan governor Rick Snyder approach what they describe as fiscal crisis resulting from under-funded pension liabilities.

In Michigan, Governor Snyder has proposed legislation that would allow him and his staff to designate any municipality or school district as a "financial emergency."

The proposal would give the governor or any member of his executive staff the power to cancel all contracts including those involving collective bargaining.

In addition, the governor would be able to fire any elected official in the state and replace that official with anyone that the governor selects.

Essentially the legislation makes Michigan a kingdom with Snyder playing the role of Sultan. The democratically elected public officials in the State of Michigan are now at-will employees of the executive branch. All it takes is an emergency label to render the votes of Michigan taxpayers null and void.

This is what people like Scott Walker, Rick Snyder and John Kasich mean when they talk about government being the problem and not the solution.


The "problem" is that as a result of fair elections men who would make themselves kings face pesky obstacles like the process of democracy and opposing views from other elected officials.

The solution is surprisingly simple and expertly catalogued in Naomi Klein’s excellent book "The Shock Doctrine."

By engineering a massive budget deficit through tax breaks for wealthy backers and corporations, politicians like Snyder and Walker use the debt-related anxiety generated in the body politic to attack the only remaining opposition to their fascist fantasies- labor unions and the public sector.

And with a like-minded Supreme Court and its Citizens United decision there’s almost no limit to what the Koch Brothers can do in terms of remaking American democracy so that "the right side wins."

The Koch’s minions are legion. They are manufactured at the CATO Institute, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Heritage Foundation. They control no fewer than 15 state legislatures. And they’ve only just begun.

Cops for Labor in Wisconsin

This is from Phil Ebersole's Blog. 

 Check out video of a detective from the Madison speaking to protestors inside the Wisconsin State House 

http://www.youtube.com/user/braveheartsbook#p/f

“Cops for Labor” in Wisconsin protests

By philebersole

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s bill to restrict public employee unions exempted law enforcement personnel.  But evidently not all police officers go along with this bid to split them from their fellow workers.

Here’s a press release from the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the police union, from last Friday.

MADISON – Following action by lawmakers to approve a rule change that clears the way for closing down the State Capitol and ejecting the people protesting Governor Walker’s bill to curtail union activity, the head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association called on the governor today to keep the capitol building open and allow the peaceful protesters to remain.

The law enforcement officers from across the state that have been working at the Capitol and have been very impressed with how peaceful everyone has been, said WPPA Executive Director Jim Palmer. As has been reported in the media, the protesters are cleaning up after themselves and have not caused any problems. The fact of that matter is that Wisconsin’s law enforcement community opposes Governor Walker’s effort to eliminate most union activity in this state, and we implore him to not do anything to increase the risk to officers and the public. The costs of providing security can never outweigh those associated with a conflict.

Palmer also announced that, beginning tonight, the WPPA is formally requesting its members from across the state to come to the Capitol to sleep amongst the throngs of other union supporters.

Law enforcement officers know the difference between right and wrong, and Governor Walker’s attempt to eliminate the collective voice of Wisconsin’s devoted public employees is wrong, continued Palmer. That is why we have stood with our fellow employees each day and why we will be sleeping among them tonight.

via American Everyman.

Then there’s this, a post from last Thursday on the web log of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing Los Angeles police officers.

Madison, Wisconsin is 2,000 miles away from Los Angeles, but the political attacks against unions there to eliminate basic protections for workers warrant our full attention and strong opposition.

As widely covered by the media in recent weeks, Wisconsin’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, is moving to strip the majority of non-safety public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights. The shocking plan has prompted massive protests and a walkout by Democratic lawmakers there, and has led to increasingly large rallies across the nation.

An attack on the collective bargaining process in any of the 50 states is an attack on every unionized worker in America. California, long a pro-labor state, is no exception. Following the Wisconsin governor’s lead, a Republican state assemblyman from Costa Mesa has announced legislation to eliminate collective bargaining for pension benefits by California’s public employees. While Assemblyman Allan Mansoor’s bill – aimed at addressing the increasing costs of retired public employees – stands little chance of passage in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, it serves as a reminder that we must remain vigilant and prepared to take action whenever our basic union rights are threatened.

The thinking behind these attacks is fuzzy at best. For starters, it’s bad politics. A new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows that Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. It found that 61 percent would oppose a law in their state similar to the plan in Wisconsin, and only 33 percent would favor it.

Union leaders and workers throughout the U.S. aren’t taking anything for granted. They are organizing and participating in rallies to show support for Wisconsin working families. More than 2,000 state and local government workers gathered at the State Capitol in Sacramento Tuesday night at a hastily organized rally to support their counterparts in Wisconsin.

A way you can help is by backing candidates who can be counted on to uphold the rights of unions and preserve the collective bargaining process. This is why we perform our due-diligence before every election to endorse only the candidates worthy of the support of the League and its members.

Our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin are under attack. They need and deserve our support. The time to pull together is NOW.

via LAPPL  Blog.

The LAPPL board of directors backtracked a little on this after getting an adverse reaction from some of their members.  What you can say is that members of the police are not monolithic in their opinions, no more than any other group.