Detroit mayor proposes 754 layoffs, police and fire to be cut

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Detroit mayor proposes 754 layoffs, police and fire to be cut
MLive.com ^ | April 12, 2005 | The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday presented a draft budget that includes 754 additional layoffs, including some in the police and fire departments.

Detroit has been struggling with a deficit of more than $300 million, and some have predicted the city could end up in receivership.

The 754 layoffs are in addition to more than 900 job cuts that Kilpatrick announced in January. At that time, he said he had no plans to touch police officers.

In his address to City Council on Tuesday, Kilpatrick proposed reducing the number of commanders and inspectors in the department. In addition, existing classes at the police academy would be suspended, he said.

"Not one police officer who is out there patrolling the streets today will be laid off," Kilpatrick said.

However, he said that promise could be kept only if the officers' union agrees to renegotiate benefits.

In addition, Kilpatrick is proposing 61 layoffs in the fire department and 47 in EMS.

 

[Bear Gulch]

Let the riots begin! Burning down Detroit would greatly improve the climate of Michigan!

 

[Sean Smith]

Great, just in time for my business trip there.

 

[jefnvk]

Detroit sucks. I'm with BeerGulch.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

as one of the worst cities in the world, they intend to cut funding and layoff members of the police department.

 

[Rupestris]

Only $300 million?
There has to be someone, or some corporation, that can just write a check, buy the entire city, level it, and sell it off in parcels.

That would make detroit worth about $3300/acre.

Not bad for prime realestate.

 

[slowworm]

So just what is sooooooo special about policemen and firemen?

If my employer runs at a loss, I get layed off.

If the city runs at a loss, city employees get layed off.

What's the problem here? Fewer Police would be needed if people took a more active role in the society they lived in and if folks are so worried about the place burning down then become volunteer firemen. It's a very socialist piece of thinking to expect the government to do it all.

Of course, what is really going on is the budget is targetting the areas that no-one wants cut and that everyone will scream about so as to leverage more money or get a tax hike through. They would never actually cut services that should be cut now would they?

 

[logical]

Detroit does have problems but it does not completely and universally suck..and it would not improve Michigan by burning down. Detroit's problems are bad, but not enough to send me screaming off to Idaho.

 

[orangeninja]

slowworm....I'll be sure to type my answer slow so that you can understand it. (slow)worm.

Your question: "So just what is sooooooo special about policemen and firemen?"

I would think the answer would be obvious, in a city full of crime, there are basic services a city should provide. Police and Firefighting should be as necassary to civillization as oxygen is to your body. What would you say if your building caught fire and call 911 and the following scenario was this:

"911 what is your emergency?"

"My building is on fire and I'm at ... please send help."

"I'm sorry sir but all engine companies in your area have been deployed, please allow at least 30 minutes to address your problem unless your life is in danger."

"But my house...all my stuff."

"I'm sorry sir, there is simply nothing I can do, I will place the work order." -click.

Or heres an even better one.

"Officer this man just broke into my car a couple of minutes ago."

"Okay I can take your complaint but it'd be better to just file with the insurance."

"WHAT!?!? My taxes pay your salary, I want somthing done about this..."

"Sir I haven't had a raise in 2 years and I've been on duty for 11 hours, if your tax dollars pay my salary, I got a bone to pick with you. I'll take your statement, when was your car broken in to?"

"I can't believe this, a guy just broke into my car and your not going to do anything about it?"

If you notice these are both non-life threatening situations. When you lay off cops, the workload doesn't decrease, you get tired cops and firemen. You also get prioritized based on absolute need. So a burglary won't take as much man power as a murder...so the burglary may never be investigated....kind of like a free ticket for criminals to do whatever they want, then when the cops catch a regular person comitting a crime they come down on them like a ton of bricks partially due to frustration from all the crimes that go untended to and partially because they just assume you've done a lot of other stuff you haven't been caught for yet.

Of course, when was the last time your company put you in a situation where someones life was in your hands?

But then, maybe you have to be a firefighter/cop to get it.

 

[WT]

I like the idea of volunteer fire fighters. Even NYC has some volunteer fire companies.

 

[kumma]

Colman Young drove Detroit into the ground during his honorable 20 years of lining his own pockets. Kwame is following the exact same path with his lavish spending on himself and his crew. After all his wife needs a Lincoln Navigator and his possee needs those Harleys (Intended for Police use but stolen by the mayors peeps) to Protect His Honor. What little people are left in the city have and will continue to suffer because of poor leadership and they only have themseleves to blame because they continue elect them.

Better get your CPL'S now or it will take who knows how long if these cuts are inacted.

 

[orangeninja]

VT fire departments are nice, however on whole may be unreliable. Firefighting is a BIG comittment...and at somepoint you are going to need a professional. This is not a dig on VT firedepartments...but if you look at the big picture, the only thing keeping them going is their sense of greater well being, but eventually they might become tired/injured or have family obligations that will pull them away from what needs to be done. VT Departments require a LOT more comittment.

 

[Sergeant Bob]

Let it burn!

 

[Old Dog]

Amazing the bad reputation the city I grew up in seems to have among people who, presumably, have never lived there. I still get back now and then, and much of what I always loved about the city remains.

Yes, the city has major, major problems. Among those problems: a knucklehead mayor with a corrupt administration and a police department noted for more per-capita shootings of citizens by police than any other PD in the country over the past several years. DPD is still operating until federal monitoring following a 30-month DOJ investigation that found DPD to be possibly the worst major city's police force it'd ever investigated.

The facts remain that when the economy of the region disintegrated, the city government's total mismanagement for the past three decades has left the city broke and the citizens desperate for quality services and some semblance of order. However, nothing that's happened in Detroit makes it "one of the worst cities in the world" (for the record, I've been in the worst cities in the world) and certainly nothing worthy of "letting the city burn down." That's especially insulting coming from people who make these comments based solely on what they think they know about the place ... there are a lot of good people left in the city (some of 'em happen to be my family).

 

[Old Dog]

Let it burn!

as one of the worst cities in the world

Detroit sucks.

Let the riots begin! Burning down Detroit would greatly improve the climate of Michigan!

And to think, this is called, "The High Road."

Unless you've spent twenty years in Detroit, and then spent some quality time in other garden spots of the world, such as Nairobi, Karachi, Baghdad, Calcutta, Rio De Janeiro, Mexico City ... you're not qualified to make those kind of statements. And if you were qualified to make those kind of statements ... you would not.

 

[orangeninja]

I second Old Dog

 

[Bear Gulch]

I've seen some garden spots like Managua, Mexico City, Rural Brazil. Detroit have gone from being a great city to a dump. But don't feel bad, I'd have said the same thing about Atlanta, my home town.

My argument is against the rotten, social services system riding urban centers of this country. The suck up all their states taxes and throw the elections for more bread and circuses. Even here in Idaho. Boise and the 4 southwestern counties control the destiny of a huge chunk of realestate. Those of us in Eastern Idaho are basically unrepresented.

 

[Talon]

My argument is against the rotten, social services system riding urban centers of this country. The suck up all their states taxes and throw the elections for more bread and circuses. Even here in Idaho. Boise and the 4 southwestern counties control the destiny of a huge chunk of realestate. Those of us in Eastern Idaho are basically unrepresented.

Ding Ding!! We have a winner!

These guys need to make cuts in the right places. Start by cutting out all the socialist welfare programs that sucks up the city and county and state funds for urban areas. :banghead:

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I used to live in Utica, MI and work at the GM Warren Tech Center -- that's right outside Detroit. Regularly, once a month there would be a scandal in city government -- corruption in the Housing Administration, Health Services, you name it. The answer to every case was always, "No, we're not going to fire anyone. We're going to TRAIN them."

While I was there, there was a case where a woman made multiple calls to 911, no one responded, and she wound up dead. When the Police Chief (McKinney, as I recall) was interviewed, he was asked "What's your average 911 response time?"

His reply? "I don't know the average 911 response time."

I kept waiting for a real cop to show up and arrest him for impersonating a Chief of Police.

 

[FRIENDLY]

detroit proposal

I suggest the FIRST police officers to go come from his personal defence force(which would never happen) but a very good idea.Imagine the mayor coming out publicly and saying they are being reassigned to the streets instead of protecting him from his unhappy voters.

 

[41mag]

Not to get too far off track but...wasn't $300 million in debt the amount it took in RoboCop for the City to be privatized

It's too bad really.If the powers that be could just clean up there act & make a commitment to business again then the City might have a future.As it stands,it's just a hollow shell of urban blight.I've read a few articles about Detroits forty year decline in the last year.It's pretty sad.It was once a great city &,according to the grand parents,it used to be a nice place to live.

BTW,I'm against giving anything to the Canucks.If they were to want Detroit then they can swim the river for it!

 

[jefnvk]

Sorry if I am harsh on Detroit. I didn't really like the cuts our school district had to make while I was there because the State thought that our tax money would be better used in Detroit than where it came from. Sorry if I didn't live there for my whole life to make me qualified to say it is an awful place. And sorry if Detroit isn't as bad as third world countries. It is still an awful place. Kinda like saying 'You are going to live through the accident, and everything is OK because you are only paralyzed from the neck down'.

Find me another place in MI where burnt out houses from 30 years ago still stand. Where piles of old tires are used to block off roads. Where flipped over cars lie from the last riot. Where someone thought hanging shoes and dolls out of trees would help to brighten up the neighborhood. Where on the border of Detroit and a neighboring township, you can visually see the difference.

Does Detroit have some good things? Sure. The Red Wings, Greektown and the Big Three come to mind. But the bad sticks out way more in my mind.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'd say Detroit ought to fire the mayor first.

 

[Bear Gulch]

It would seem that cutbacks are in order. I bet they'll try for a federal bail out like NYC did in the 70's.

 

[SteveS]

My argument is against the rotten, social services system riding urban centers of this country. The suck up all their states taxes and throw the elections for more bread and circuses. Even here in Idaho. Boise and the 4 southwestern counties control the destiny of a huge chunk of realestate. Those of us in Eastern Idaho are basically unrepresented.

I have never lived in Detroit, so I won't comment on how bad or good the city is. I have lived in MI my entire life and disgusted at the amount of tax money that gets directed into that city and wasted.