Camden, N.J., to lose nearly half its cops

[unhappycamper]

Camden, N.J., is laying off nearly half its police force.


Camden, N.J., to lose nearly half its cops
By Tami Luhby, senior writerJanuary 17, 2011: 7:22 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- There will be fewer cops patrolling the streets of Camden, N.J., come Tuesday.

Struggling to close a $26.5 million budget gap, the city with the second highest crime rate in the nation is laying off 163 police officers. That's nearly 44% of the force.

And Camden will also lose 60 of its 215 firefighters. Some people with desk jobs will be demoted and reassigned to the streets.

The mayor's office says that the cuts will not affect public safety.

"We're still going to protect our residents," said Robert Corrales, spokesman for Mayor Dana Redd. Public safety "will remain our top concern. We'll shift our resources to be more efficient with what we have."

[DrDan]

1. according to the pro-gun crowd, we are safer with armed civilians than police

I have my doubts, but that is their claim.

[Hannah Bell]

2. so camden didn't really need 44% of its police & 30% of its firefighters? they could have just been

more efficient all the time?

okey dokey.

[era veteran]

3. What could go wrong?

[katnapped]

4. Just privatize everything!

"Before we can take your 911 call, will that be debit or credit?"

[Tesha]

9. "Your safety is now a service of Omni Consumer Products"

[HughBeaumont]

14. DICK JONES!! I WORK FOR DICK JONES!

[Scruffy1]

5. Someone tell me were not a third world country

It's all just a bad dream.

[HughBeaumont]

15. Here's how this country works:

The city with the second highest crime rate? Naaaaaaah, you don't need as many cops. You'll manage. Good luck.

But two war criminal dictators celebrating another stolen "election" in 2005?







Out the yin-yang twins. I was there. The police were three to four lines deep, almost shoulder to shoulder in places. We were all saying things to them like "sure hope no one's committing a crime in your respective states" and "You know, they'll name schools after you if you arrest them now!"

What's even funnier is that I was also at President Obama's inauguration and noticed that he didn't even get half of the ground protection Bewsh II and Cheney did.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Should we be sending thank you cards to Gov Christie?

:sarcasm:

[liberal N proud]

7. Crime rate must not be high enough

If you want to avoid Camden for safety reasons, here is a map of the area. Plan carefully.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camden,+NJ&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.301626,62.578125&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Camden,+New+Jersey&z=12

[lunatica]

8. They gotta cut that "wasteful" spending

They're not closing down the penitentiaries, so not to worry.

[Patiod]

10. Right wing tool on local Fox is RANTING about this

Granted, the local Fox station tries to stay pretty neutral, but one fellow always manages to provide his conservative slant to any story - pretty sure his goal in life is Faux News.

But he grew up in Camden, and is raving and ranting about how wrong these layoffs are, even admitting that "there are whispers that this wouldn't be allowed to happen anywhere else" (translation = because the residents are largely black and poor. I never thought I'd agree with this dope, but he's right.

Yes, the city has been mismanaged in the past. So is that a reason for that sanctimonious fat fuck in Trenton to put its residents at risk of death by murder or fire?

[DCKit]

12. As you said "largely black and poor".

In Republic world, they don't deserve police and fire protection.

[Joe Fields]

11. "Public safety will remain our top concern." ???

Makes one wonder how they treat lesser "concerns."

[upi402]

13. Neocons are drooling for martial law

The law and order party will blame Obama no matter how fast he caves into them.

[madinmaryland]

16. "the cuts will not affect public safety"

How can that be possible??

:wtf:

[Tesha]

17. It isn't possible.

But it's expected that politicians will say such things.

Tesha

[tallahasseedem]

18. This...

is NOT good. Scary...