Saturday, May 26, 2007

More Stupid Spending

While the city claims to not be able to afford the long-term payroll commitments that staffing the police department requires, Dixon has been able to increase the payroll of the mayor's office by nearly 15 percent since taking office in January.
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14 comments:

Bill Mill said...

Question: Do you have a manifesto?

I've been reading for a month or so now, and you allude to your opinions on what the city should do, but I don't know what they are.

If you don't, consider it a request! I'd like to know what you think should be done.

Sat May 26, 09:22:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

OK, this is gonna be very self-serving, because I frequently take issue with the author's position on prisoner re-entry policy, but check out Rodricks' column today. It sounds like one of my posts.

Thank you.

Sun May 27, 06:41:00 AM EDT
Gor said...

I agree galt, Rodrick's column seems to mirror most of the views here, but Rodrick made one mistake in his article. He said "...The homicide rate is not as bad as it was during the miserable Schmoke years, but it's still bad ..."

The worst year I found under Schmoke had a murder rate of 48.2 per 100,000 which was in 1993. If the rest of this year continues as the first 21 weeks has, then Mayor Dixon will looking at a murder rate of 48.3 per 100,000.

Sun May 27, 07:51:00 AM EDT
Maurice Bradbury said...

There isn't a "manifeso" (we're not underwritten by a the Republicans like that "The Sun Lies" guy)!
But I can say readers and followers seem to share the consensus that the city needs to staff the police department. That seems like a big "duh!"
(And aren't the schools broke, too? Ours needs $1.3 million worth of work.)

How many officers are the citizens being shorted of currently, galt? 300?

Personally I'm starting to get really sick of all the "Arts" funding. Public art in particular, every time I drive by that Penn station eyesore. Yet Dixon wants 1 % of public construction money towards putting up more of that sh*t! Hundreds of little museums! And every little windfall goes to fountans and memorial statues and other clutter! The girls are going shopping for trinkets and fripperies on our dime!

Sun May 27, 11:16:00 AM EDT
Maurice Bradbury said...

wow, really, we've passed the Schmoke years?!

Sun May 27, 11:19:00 AM EDT
Gor said...

Only if the next 31 weeks are like the last 21.

Also, we are 300 officers short of what is authorized, but we are 500 short to be on par with New York (corrected for population size, of course).

Sun May 27, 12:03:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

And that fails to compensate for the compositional difference between Baltimore and New York.

That is, if for the sake of illustration, New York consists of 3% persons needing public supervision and Baltimore consists of 6%, then you would need at least twice as many police per capita.

Sun May 27, 01:21:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

We are several thousand short of New York-class policing. Don't be misled by apologists. It's bad here. Real, real bad.

Sun May 27, 01:24:00 PM EDT
Gor said...

What does "public supervison" mean, btw?

Sun May 27, 01:40:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...

I heard a RUMOR (and I hope it's just that-- a rumor, and not truth) that the there's a lot of overtime fraud in the city police department. Specifically, that cops are padding their timecards with departmental overtime while actually working their moonlighting jobs, so they get salary, overtime, and whatever the moonlighting job pays. Frankly, with the crummy salaries they're paid as city cops, this would be sadly unsurprising.
Maybe Balto city needs to save overtime $$ and pay the cops decent salaries, while hiring (many) more cops to share the heavy workload.

Sun May 27, 01:41:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

It's like this, Gor:

Of the young males who parade past my front door all night between, say, 9:00 pm and 4:00 am each night, about 85% have been convicted of a criminal offense. About 50% have more than maybe four convictions (including juvie). About 40% have handguns.

When you overhear their conversations, it's either about boinking some 'ho' (as opposed to a date), hustling up some drug sales, recovering 'respect' through assaulting or killing the disser, comparing handgun features, or the logistics of getting a homeboy out of custody /picking up a prisoner to be released from incarceration.

If there are no cops around, my door and window have to be shut and locked for the night. I am imprisoned by the public conduct of these hoodlums. When a cop drives by, the boys will not misbehave in hs presence, but will certainly do as they please after he turns the corner.

It's like staffing a kindergarten where all the children have sharp scissors. How many supervisors do you have to supply? Enough to oversee them and remove anyone whose behavior threatens to cause serious injury. If there are 100 children in that room, you'd better not assign one overseer.

In a civilized society, you only need a few overseers relative to residential population. Then again, a civilized society doesn't punish it's criminals by... dumping them back out onto the street after conviction instead of incapacitating through long periods of incarceration.

Sun May 27, 02:09:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

What Bobby Curran's bill proposed to do was selectively impose lockdown of public space by police.

In its absence and without adequate patrol personnel, those same public spaces are in lockdown,.. by the hoodlums.



Can we qualify for U.N. peacekeepers, maybe?

Sun May 27, 02:22:00 PM EDT
Maurice Bradbury said...

coug,
either it's a rumor, or that "Mad Dog" guy really worked 18-22 hours every day for a year!

Tue May 29, 08:03:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

Wow, that Mad Dog really knows how to work the system! Six figures?! He's almost making Sheila Dixon-level dinero.

Thu May 31, 01:08:00 AM EDT

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