According to an article on the Boston Globe website, city police departments are cutting outreach services in an attempt to close budget shortfalls.
Those services deemed ‘extra’ in protecting our citizenry such as: gang units, bicycle, horse and foot patrols are going to be taken away to save money. Other funding that will soon dry up are grant programs that fund extra officers, programs, and equipment to enhance community policing.
All of these cuts, of course, mean less protection for every citizen. Tax paying citizens who expect to have police and fire protection. Tax paying citizens who expect our government to educate our children. Tax paying citizens who expect to have our roads and infrastructure safely maintained. Tax paying citizens who expect to have representation at city council and in mayors offices and in governors offices to do something more constructive than give us band-aid ‘solutions’ that add to the problem.
It is in our nature to first recognize the cause of a problem (the finger pointing phase) and then to find a solution.
The Finger Pointing Phase
Greed is what got us into this mess and greed needs to be overcome to get out of it. In my opinion, it is obvious how eight years of failed ‘leadership’ by a power hungry, greed-driven, unethical, immoral administration created the ideal atmosphere for this financial collapse. If there had been more conscientious adherence to regulation, more ethics, and more concern about the health of our economy instead of how to beat the law and fatten personal banking accounts then we would not be in this mess.
And now, on with The Solution.
The obvious answer to this economic morass is to reduce the pay of every salaried employee in every sector, public and private. I am certain this is not a very popular position to take, but we are ALL in this together. We are ALL suffering from it. Those not suffering as much are the institutions that the federal government determined should receive huge influxes of money despite their role in creating it. Instead of eliminating a handful of job positions (people with bills to pay and mouths to feed) and adding to the unemployment drain, let’s reduce everyone’s salary and keep everyone employed.
We all need to participate in the solution. By cutting back on salaries we will be forced to reduce spending and businesses will be forced to cut back on product and service prices. Let’s alleviate the pressure on the system by not always striving to sell more than last quarter. Growth needs to take a break until we can all get on firmer ground. This is the ‘trickle down’ theory of the 21st century, reflecting a 21st century problem.
The bottom line is that we can not continue the lifestyle we enjoyed during economic boom times. Those times are gone. The sooner we all recognize it the better we will all be.
Reducing public safety is only going to compound society's problems. With rising unemployment we will see rising crime. It has historical precedence. I don’t relish the idea of citizen policing but if cities continue cutting public services, I can see it coming.
We talk about pulling together in times of crisis, about how volunteerism and neighbor helping neighbor are such laudable attributes of a well-knit community, well let’s put those attributes into play now because, brother, the hard times have arrived.
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