em what?
Anyone else feel our police are despreatly understaffed and underfunded?
I sure don't.
Anyone else feel that it isn't the federal government's job to take wealth from the states and citizens, essentially limiting the states' own ability to tax their citizens for programs they actually want, and then redistributed the seized monies to those whom IT favors. Never mind that the criminal justice system is a state responsibility, one that could be managed easier if the feds weren't stealing monies that would be used for the states and then sending it around to achieve its own ends, and then claiming THEY did it for us... even though the states are perfectly able to hire their own cops and raise their own taxes if the citezens weren't allready being taxed so much by the feds...
In fact I feel that we have way too many. Lets cut out the speed traps, victimless crimes, and other bullshit, and then we can use the money saved on lab testing, police sallaries, prosecutor salaries, defense attorney's, and lost days at work by those arrested to prosecute real crime, i.e. theft and violence.
This is bullshit.
We do not need to be a police state, and more cops doesn't equal more safety. Lets require the cops be fit, not fat asses, and get them out of their cars and walking a beat. Then maybe we'll have some difference. Until then we'll rack up prosecutions for traffic offenses, and the many MANY crimes arising out of traffic offenses (drugs, some guns, persuant to a search or arrest fro traffic offenses) to the detriment of our safety.
Do we really need more cops when we have 50% of our prisoners, in some areas, from drug related crimes? I don't think so.
Oh, and balanced budget anyone?
"Department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them."
Source: Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7 (July 1998), p. 721.
#
# According to the American Corrections Association, the average daily cost per state prison inmate per day in the US is $67.55. State prisons held 249,400 inmates for drug offenses in 2006. That means it cost states approximately $16,846,970 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6,149,144,050 per year.
The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.
Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's One Million Nonviolent Prisoners (Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 1999), pg. 4.
California state government expenditures on prisons increased 30% from 1987 to 1995, while spending on higher education decreased by 18%.
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers, 1995 State Expenditures Report (Washington DC: National Association of State Budget Officers, 1996).
Quote:
By Claudia Parsons Fri Apr 11, 12:10 PM ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton would help cities and states fight crime with a $4 billion plan unveiled on Friday that also aims to halve murder rates in the most dangerous U.S. cities. ADVERTISEMENT
The New York senator announced the plan in Philadelphia, which has the highest homicide rate among the 10 biggest U.S. cities and is a major battleground in her flagging race against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton is ahead in Pennsylvania polls before the state's April 22 primary but needs to maintain a strong lead to stay in the race to be the Democratic nominee in the November vote. Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania.
The centerpiece of Clinton's proposal is a goal of halving homicide rates in cities. It includes adding 100,000 new police recruits, targeting gang violence and disrupting drug markets, and a federal initiative to tackle illegal gun trafficking.
"We'll start by setting a bold goal," Clinton said at a YMCA community center in the tough neighborhood of West Philadelphia. "We'll start by focusing on cities with high homicide rates and we will cut those rates in half."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080411/us_nm/usa_politics_clinton_crime_dc
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i know the cops in my area have 'too much time on their hands' so i would guess that means we need to basically half the force. not to mention they have killed 4-5 unarmed people over the last decade. the good news is i'm not voting for clinton and she probably wont get the nomination either.
Paul 08
-------------------- "Life sucks but in this really beautiful way" - Axl Rose "Life's a bitch and then you die that's why we get high cuz you never know when you're gonna go." - NAS "When people don't know what you're about they put you down and shut you out" - Black Sabbath "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Gandhi "Look up at me I am God, look down on me and I am evil, look at me I am you." - Charles Manson. "Don't question my reality." - Me (as far as I know)
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Most ho's will say anything to get what they want
-------------------- My advice is to find those things that give pleasure and do them often without too much attachment and relax and wait for the show to end. -Icelander- I like free markets and all. Truly I do, at least in general, but there needs to be some kind of oversight in recognition of sustainability. Life works the same way, on a bunch of sustainable systems. Why not honor what made us what we are and take some lessons? Nature FTW! ~dill705~
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