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

[cracked butt]

Big deal if .gov employees get axed. Police and firefighters aren't sacred. People who work in the private sector have to deal with this all of the time- if a coprporation is hurting for money, jobs get cut and employees are expected to do more with less. That's life and reality, government employees shouldn't be exempt from either.

Maybe if government was run like a corporation rather than a welfare distribution center from the township level all the way up to the federal level, the stakeholders (taxpayers) would get a much better return for their buck, even if it meant that some services were farmed out to Mexico or India

 

[Talon]

Maybe if government was run like a corporation rather than a welfare distribution center...

I don't think it ought to be run as either. I think it needs to be realized that government has zero rights, and some very specific responsibilities, and not an inch more than those. It needs to be treated as the necessary evil the Founding Fathers intended it to be, not the crutch of the world that we all sink or swim by.

Man I'm in a fiesty mood tonight... sorry, but I stand by statements.

 

[cracked butt]

Talon- I mostly agree with your sentiments.

I have a feeling that if social service recipients had to wait in line at a DMV type setting instead of having payments conveniently mailed to their homes, a lot of problems would go away.

My Grandfather once told me that the most shameful thing he ever did was stand in line at an Unemployment office, seeing the types of people who were there, he never collected another unemployment check again.

 

[Sergeant Bob]

No, I don't live in Detroit, but have lived most of my life in close proximity of it. You don't have to actually live there to know about it, just like you don't have to live in a dump to know it stinks. I've been there enough to know all I need to know about it.

That town has a cancer that is steadily spreading outward, consuming the surrounding towns, and no matter how much money they throw at it they can't seem to stop it.

The people of that city keep electing corrupt politicians again and again (although Dennis Archer didn't fit the mold of Coleman Young and Kwami Kilpatrick) and then complain that the street lights don't work.

Detroit (Wayne County) is the "bluest" part of the state (with the possible exception of Ann Arbor) and is one of the largest leeches of our tax dollars in the state.

I don't think Kilpatrick is kidding about cutting police and fire services. I think he'd rather do that than cut out some of the sweat deals he and his homey's have going. Having more police and firemen is not what makes a city. It is the people,
and if the people of Detroit choose to elect people like him and his ilk, they only get what they deserve.

Let it burn. Maybe they'll learn something.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

One day the people of Detroit are going to realize that the only mayor they had that was worth squat was Dennis Archer. What a piece of work this new guy is. Worse than Coleman Young. Detroit is dying a slow and painful death.

 

[orangeninja]

"Big deal if .gov employees get axed. Police and firefighters aren't sacred. People who work in the private sector have to deal with this all of the time-"

Um...yeah...except when someone is breaking in your house or having a heart attack they don't call XEROX. :banghead:

If governments were run like private corporations, we'd need your credit card number before dispatching police/ems/fire when you call 911. That and you'd be talking to a 911 operator from Bangledesh.

 

[modifiedbrowning]

Has the Mayor spoken with OCP yet? Looks like it is time for "New Detroit".

 

[Art Eatman]

My first job out of college was across the railroad track from Vern, at the Chevrolet Test Lab--But earlier, I'd imagine; 1962.

My view of Dee-troit City is, "I spent thirty years there, one winter." When the snow comes down already-gray...

Aw, well. Probably better than Seoul, South Korea, in 1954. Then, again...

, Art

 

[Sergeant Bob]

Um...yeah...except when someone is breaking in your house or having a heart attack they don't call XEROX.

Do you actually think that calling 911 when someone is already breaking into your house is is going to help you? If you do then I believe you are frequenting the wrong internet forum.
Call XEROX? Do they run an ambulance service now? If they do I'd call them. Most health emergencies are handled by privately owned ambulance companies anyway, not by the fire department. At any rate, the user does pay for the ride, and they do accept Visa.

 

[Bear Gulch]

Fire COmpanies can be augmented with volunteers. I am the training officer for my Rural Fire District. We handle structue and wildland fires. We are all volunteers, and had one of the best response times in Idaho, as a result our districts insurance ratings are very good. Oh, wait, New Fallujah is a union town, probably can't walk into the fire hall without a union card.

 

[Mikul]

Detroit is NOT going to drop police and fire services. They're crying poor because of their own ineptitude and by crying about how they need to cut police and fire services (sure, no PARK services need to be cut) they're trying to force the state to step in and bail them out, and the state will.

They are by no means the first city to play this game... and they won't be the last.

 

[Colt45]

You can read all about his' "Honor" at Detroit Uncovered.
Just follow the archived links.
http://www.geocities.com/firejerryo/

 

[foghornl]

First person in Detroit needing layoff is Hizzonner The Mayor.

 

[orangeninja]

Sergeant Bob, methinks you missed the point. Private corporations may run an ambulance, but I garuntee they don't run the dispatch, 911, police, investigations etc.

Never mind.

 

[slowworm]

Alduro,

perhaps this quote makes more of the point:

Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the worlds first modern police force in 1743 in London wrote those words and they are as true today as they ever were.

If an area has high crime it is because the people who live there are not prepared to report wrong-doing and stand as witness against the accused.

Having sucked at the teat of the state for so long the community feels that it is someone elses problem to fix. And if the community does not wish to assist the police how will more officers help?

Only in the case there is literally a policeman on every corner. And who wants a police state like that, apart from the police unions to guarantee employment for their members?

There are really very few places that need more Police. It's really the other way round. The police need more involvment and help from the community. Adding more officiers without this usually does nothing but displace the crime elsewhere.

Maybe loosing some officers will cause the community to wake up to that fact and start standing up and being counted.

Remember, all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Have we truly reached the situation in this country that every citizens duty in this regard is delegated to a paid employee of the city? If so then the ideals this country was founded on are already dead, and we are already little more than slaves.

 

[Sergeant Bob]

Sergeant Bob, methinks you missed the point. Private corporations may run an ambulance, but I garuntee they don't run the dispatch, 911, police, investigations etc.

Never mind.

Well, gee, I didn't realize they were going to do away with the police completely.
Where is it said that the only ones capable of handling the more mundane (although not unimportant) aspects like 911 (and believe me, I know the value of 911 more than most people) are govt employed, unionized Police?
Is it kind of like, the only ones capable of screening passengers and bags at the airport are govt employed monkeys?

More police in Detroit is not going to change anything. Less is not going to change things much either. See the post by slowworm

Methinks you missed the point?

 

[orangeninja]

"Is it kind of like, the only ones capable of screening passengers and bags at the airport are govt employed monkeys?"

Personally I think TSA is doing a great job given all the challenges they have had to meet and the short amount of time they were given. In fact at DFW airport there used to be screeners who didn't even speak English and screening was adhoc at best.

Thanks, I think TSA illustrates my point exactly between professional govt. services and private.

If anyone thinks police should be privitized just take a good hard look at the Texas prison system, or how about your local mall security.

Slowworm....Robert Peel was right, unfortunantly that quote doens't take human nature into account. There are patriots and people who do the right thing, but most people won't.

Secondly neighborhoods have personalities just like people do, some are cooperative, some aren't.

Lastly having a concentration of cops in one area does not simply move crime somewhere else. When follow through on investigations are made, you have more arrests....the problem comes when we process these guys and spend litterally millions a year only to have the courts and corrections systems rotate them right back into society.

Anyhow....I can see we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[c_yeager]

A lot of police deparments are starting to use citizen volunteers for the more mundane tasks of law enforcement, up to and including taking reports on petty crimes.