Oakland votes to lay off 80 police officers

[AsahinaKimi]

Source: SFGATE.COM

The Oakland City Council voted Thursday to lay off 80 of the Police Department's 776 officers as it slashed at a $30.5 million budget deficit. The decision could be rescinded if the police union agrees to pension concessions.

Council members would like the officers to contribute 9 percent of their salaries toward their CalPERS pension, the same as every other city union worker.

Union leaders and city officials are set to negotiate Sunday and Monday, a move some interpreted as a sign the union was willing to change its position.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/24/MNV61E4IL3.DTL&tsp=1

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Wow. Just wow.

[pipoman]

1. They could easily and permanently cut off 80

with no ill effect if we end the war on weed tomorrow.

[unhappycamper]

3. If the military budget weren't a trillion dollars a year,

aid to cities and towns could be restored. So could teacher, firemen, and policeman salaries. And . . . . And . . . . And . . . .

[lunatica]

6. Do you live in Oakland?

because I do and I would hate to lose any policemen.

[pipoman]

7. Almost everywhere,

the root of much crime is in the 'war on drugs'. Many societal issues could be remedied by ending the WOD and using all of the law enforcement dollars associated with the WOD on drug and alcohol rehab and treatment, IMHO..

[lunatica]

8. legalizing pot will be on the ballot come elections

If it happens maybe crime will go down. Then is the time to lay off cops. Not before.

[mulsh]

13. Pot has been a non issue with OPD for a number of years.

I'm an Oakland resident.
OPD doesn't respond to most crimes like home invasion or and traffic accidents in under about 2 hours in myu recent experience.
OPD has crap upper management which should be thinned out. They need to re-train or hire new dispatchers. the Oakland City council needs to act of firing upper level civil servants. all those folk taking home six figure paychecks and pilfering things like cars and setting up their kids and friends in cozy well paid jobs.
The drug war pretty much ended for OPD about 10 years ago.
sorry Boston is a mess too.

[unhappycamper]

9. No, I live in Boston.

Boston is experiencing the same shit cities and towns across the country are facing. Aid to cities and towns has been cut to keep the MIC / Empire / military flush with funds to keep the Empire strong, building war toys and occupying countries.

[davidinalameda]

10. especially with the the Grant trial verdict coming soon

it's going to be interesting no matter what the verdict is

I'm so glad that I no longer live in that area

[rug]

2. That's a start.

[Rebubula]

5. LOL

Go to Oakland and see if you think that they need less cops.

Life is different there as opposed to Milford, PA.

[Rebubula]

4. Sad...

....that the places that need police the most are the places that they are cutting.

Get rid of some council members and keep the cops. Oakland needs police more than pols. Case in point, a memorial service (for a young man that was gunned down) was shot up and a 17 year old girl was killed.

Stay out of Oakland...

[lunatica]

11. On the other side it's bad too

4 cops shot and killed by a convicted rapist who had just raped a girl that morning. It was just a routine traffic violation, or so thought the first cop.

[lunatica]

12. When unemployment rises crime rises

Is there something about that equation that politicians don't understand? It's a d'oh, no brainer kinda thang.

[LiberalFighter]

14. If they are going to require the police to contribute to their pension plan

then the city needs to pay more.

[KansDem]

15. Maybe if they stopped sucking up to the wealthy...

...they might have the revenue to save a few of these positions.

Oakland Local

A fair and equitable solution seemed simple enough. Oakland city officials could have held off on ticketing for those two offenses on narrow streets throughout the city while cracking down on such violations on all streets that were not narrow. (To be even fairer, of course, Oakland officials could have given out courtesy tickets for those two offenses all across the city so that citizens would have had a chance to adjust to the new enforcement regimen. But since the purpose of the stepped up enforcement was not for safety purposes, but only to raise money for the budget, city officials wanted to catch citizens by surprise so they could issue as many tickets as possible before drivers caught on and stopped committing the violations.)

Anyway, Oakland did neither. Instead, at least one official within the Dellums Administration—either on his own or at the direction of superiors—decided to single out two sections of the city for special, favorable treatment. On July 24, Oakland Senior Parking Enforcement Supervisor Ronald Abernathy issued the following memo to parking enforcement officials entitled “Courtesy Notices on 651 & 643 for Sidewalks & Parked the Wrong Way”:

“Please ensure that Courtesy Notices are placed on vehicles for Sidewalks and Parked the Wrong Way violations on 651 & 643 until further notice. We are currently forming a citizens/city Parking Committee to study the cause and the narrow street issues in these areas.” (The 651 and 643 numbers refer to the enforcement areas of Broadway Terrace and Montclair, what the San Francisco Chronicle rightfully described as “two of the city’s wealthier neighborhoods” in their February 25, 2010 article “Oakland Parking Ticket Policy Called 'Not Fair'”)

Meanwhile, the city proceeded with “aggressively enforcing” the wrong-way parking and sidewalk parking ticketing policies in all other portions of the city.