Oakland’s police chief Anthony Batts has announced that Oakland Police will not responded to 44 different crimes if planned layoffs occur at midnight. It was useful for Batts to announce the categories in advance for criminals to chose from a criminal dim sum list of free crimes including grand theft, burglary, vehicle collision, identity theft and vandalism.
If you are the victim of burglary, you will be told to make a report online and not to expect police to respond.
Here the list of free crimes in Oakland:
burglary
theft
embezzlement
grand theft
grand theft:dog
identity theft
false information to peace officer
required to register as sex or arson offender
dump waste or offensive matter
discard appliance with lock
loud music
possess forged notes
pass fictitious check
obtain money by false voucher
fraudulent use of access cards
stolen license plate
embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)
extortion
attempted extortion
false personification of other
injure telephone/ power line
interfere with power line
unauthorized cable tv connection
vandalism
administer/expose poison to another’s
That allows ample room for most criminals to plan a life of crime without the risk of police interference.
This is the response to the planned layoff of 80 officers. That is roughly one-tenth of the force. As we continue to gush billions in Afghanistan and Iraq, our cities are returning to a state of nature. According to the city of Oakland, each of the 776 police officers currently employed at OPD costs around $188,000 per year. The city council asked OPD officers to pay nine percent of their salary toward their pensions. However, the union would only agree if the city promised no layoffs. The city refused.
Source: NBC.
Byron, Krugman might be the most just and reasonable economist in the world. You and that post are the joke. Maybe time to get back to third grade.
The “tea party” voted to stay in the republican party. It is not independent of it. In politics as elsewhere you are known by the company you keep. If you line up with people that are spitting on black congressman and calling gays members homophobic names then you are part of the problem.
Jill–
I understnad your point. I’m just really wary of folks like Erickson. There are too many people in the media like him, Limbaugh, Beck, Savage, and others who do their best to rile up the right wing.
In addition, I don’t think we would have seen all these folks involved in Tea Party protests if Obama had been white. I do believe–at least as far as some of these Tea Party folks are concerned–that there is an element of racism involved.
Elaine,
I think you are missing my point. I am not in agreement with any member of the Tea Party Movement. My quote from Erick was put there to help you understand that the movement is composed of actual citizens, some of whom are racist or otherwise bad people and some of whom are are not racist, hate mongers or bad people. Then there are the operatives. The most important reason I point this out is to show how genuine sentiment on the right or the left is a danger to the power of the ruling elites. This is true of tea party members and it is true of progressives.
The tea party movement as used by operatives serves an important role in enabling the powerful to stay in power. First, keeping the Democratic base occupied with an “enemy” so they won’t look at their own party’s leadership and start having those embarrassing questions and 2. keeping genuine dissent from entering the Republican party. Check it out. The tea party movement appears and disappears just like the yellow, orange and red alerts did under Bush. Underneath the manipulation is a genuine movement, one I do not agree with even when people aren’t being racists, but I see why the govt. fears it and is trying desperately to co-opt it to their own use.
Jill–
Correct if I’m wrong: Isn’t Erick Erickson a right wing hatemonger?
Yissil & Jill,
Good show you two.
And what they said.
(Elaine, this speaks to the phony and real parts of the movement)
Byron,
I found this, you’ll llke it!: “We told you yesterday about the fears among Tea Party activists that a planned national convention, at which Sarah Palin will speak, is too expensive for regular folks to attend — and may be a bid by corporate or political interests to co-opt the movement. (TPMmuckraker — or half of it — talked about the issue with Rachel Maddow last night.)
And it sounds like at least one influential conservative voice agrees.
“I think this national tea party convention smells scammy,” RedState founder Erick Erickson wrote yesterday.
He went on: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/redstate_founder_tea_party_convention_smells_scamm.php
Let me be blunt: charging people $500.00 plus the costs of travel and lodging to go to a “National Tea Party Convention” run by a for profit group no one has ever heard of sounds as credible as an email from Nigeria promising me a million bucks if I fork over my bank account number.”
Byron,
There are a lot of tea party members who’d agree with that!
Elaine,
Here is a program on NPR, Diane Rehm yesterday:
“Diane hosts a conversation about the evolution of the Tea Party movement. We discuss it’s goals, who belongs and how it’s shaking up the political establishment.
Guests
Kate Zernike
a national correspondent for The New York Times and member of the team that shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Her book, “Boiling Mad -Inside Tea Party America” will be published in September.
Matt Kibbe
president and CEO of FreedomWorks and co-author with Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of the forthcoming book, “Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto”
Diana Reimer
an organizer with Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots
Ryan Hecker
an attorney, a Houston Tea Party Society activist and an organizer of the Contract From America Project.”
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-12/tea-party
You’re going to hear the two distinct strands in this piece, the actual people who believe in what they’re doing and the Dick Army/operative-type people.
While correct that the movement heated up in 2009, it started in the mid 1990s. I’m looking for the interview Rachel Maddow (I think it was her) did with one founder in the movement.
As to ruling elites, being wealthy and/or educated wouldn’t get you in. I mean the interlocking directorate between the govt., the defense and financial industries. It’s a small group of the same people with their hands on just about everything!
Swarthmore Mom, I agree, there is a lot of racism in the tea party movement. Here’s is why I thought you believed everyone in the movement was a racist– you wrote: “I disagree that the “tea party is a group of sincere people” unless sincerely racist is all that is considered. Is not Obama because of the color of his skin an anathama to these people and they want him removed?” That paragraph seems like you think every tea party memeber is racist and that the are against Obama because he is black. It also seems like you do not believe anyone can have another reason than racism to oppose Obama. I can’t agree with that, even in the tea party movement.
Jill:
there are a couple of groups trying to set the agenda for the Tea Party, I am of the opinion the absolute worst thing would be for the Republican Party to co-opt it. They [republican party] are a very bad bunch and have made enough mischief on this country. But then so are/have the democrats.
Jill–
I was under the impression the movement originated in 2009. I know Dick Armey’s group is one of the big supporters of the Tea Party “grass roots” movement.
I’m not sure who you are referring to as elites. Folks like me who live in the Northeast, who are educated, and who have liberal viewpoints are sometimes called elites–which is so far from the truth. Many of us “so-called elites” are really egalitarians.
http://law.jrank.org/pages/8005/Know-Nothing-Party.html The more things change the more they remain the same.
http://millermps.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/some-history-of-tea-party-movement/ I did not say all people that disagree with Obama are racist. That is a Sean Hannity type of trap. What I did say is that racism seems to be woven into the tea party movement. I will add the birther folks to the list of racists. Many of the tea party emails include very racist drawings of Obama.
Swarthmore mom:
I don’t like him because of his political and economic philosophy pure and simple. I love Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams and would vote for either one of them in a second if they were running for any office. I am not a member of the Tea Party but I am pretty sure Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell would be treated like Rock Stars at a Tea Party gathering.
The left doesn’t understand that people actually do like capitalism and individual liberty and so they dismiss those who do as racist. It is easier for the left to believe racism is the cause of opposition to Obama’s policies rather than a fundamental philosophical rejection of progressive/socialist policies. The left has been lead to believe that socialism is the only possible form of economic and political theory that has any merit. And those that don’t believe as they do are ignorant, racist or worse.
Elaine,
In the mid 90’s, I believe. I’ll get the info for you but have to go now. The current financial supporters appear to me to be some from real people, but a lot (most) from shadowy groups up to no good from the Republican establishment. This group appears to want to co-opt the movement for their own purposes and there is a struggle happening about that within the movement itself. It’s not in the elite’s interest for a grass roots movement to start questioning mainstream Republican “leaders”.
Jill–
“The actual origin of the movement goes back to long before Obama became a public figure so the belief that it started to get rid of a black president is contrary to facts.”
**********
When did the movement originate–and who are the founders and financial supporters of it?
Our economy isn’t going to get much better until we start manufacturing goods again in this country. Instead, we give tax breaks to corporations that build factories in other countries where the wages are much, much lower. Eventually, there will be many more millions of Americans who can’t find well-paying jobs–no matter how long they look. We’ll have an ever-growing segment of our population who have jobs that pay so little that the workers won’t be able to maintain a quality standard of living. We are on the road to becoming a third world country.
I know people in the tea party movement and they aren’t all racist and they are quite sincere. The actual origin of the movement goes back to long before Obama became a public figure so the belief that it started to get rid of a black president is contrary to facts. (It’s great propaganda from the administration though.)
One of the best thought stoppers Obama supporters use is, if you oppose Obama, you are a racist. In some cases this is true. That truth is then used to discredit any legitimate criticism of Obama. But there is a way around that thought stopper. We can examine if the person actually is a racist or not. They will show this in all areas of their life. Therefore, we owe people an honest assessment as to whether they are racists, including people in the tea party movement. It’s much easier and more comforting to believe people who criticize Obama have illegitimate, evil motives. It takes honesty to see that isn’t the case. It also requires people to examine their own support for actions they vehemently disavowed when done by Bush.
Well considering a good deal of money didnt go to actual projects, I dont know how anyone can say the stimulus worked or didnt work.
And the economy isnt that great right now although I am noticing an increase in public works projects.
I am reminded of the story of the broken window: A boy breaks a window of the baker and the baker now has to buy a new window which costs $100. The baker had wanted to buy a new suit which was to cost a $100. The baker cannot now buy the suit and so the tailor is out a $100 which he was going to use to buy a new sewing machine.
The glazier is $100 richer and so the broken window helps him, but it does not help the baker or the tailor. If stimulus would work then breaking every window in the town should ensure prosperity but it wont and neither will a stimulus and for the same reason. Keynes was wrong and Krugman is a poor economist.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/ben-nelson-bucks-party-he_n_644523.html I was wrong earlier when I said no democrats were against the extension of unemployment benefits. There is one.
I disagree that the “tea party is a group of sincere people” unless sincerely racist is all that is considered. Is not Obama because of the color of his skin an anathama to these people and they want him removed?