Rev. Joseph Tracy said he’s tired of going to funerals. And now, he suspects he’ll be going to more of them."It’s open field day now," said Tracy, the pastor of Straightway Baptist Church here. "The criminals are going to run wild."
Gang activity. Drug dealing. Cold-blooded killing. Tracy worries that a decision to shrink the police force by almost 30 percent will bring more of everything.
The pastor voiced his concern on Friday at a raucous special City Council meeting at which East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks announced that the city will layoff 37 employees, including 19 of its 62 police officers, 11 firefighters, four public works employees, and three administrators. The layoffs take effect on Sunday.
Parks said the weak economy has robbed the city of badly need money. For example, revenue from the Casino Queen was $900,000 below budget expectations last year. There are no signs of improvement, Parks said.
"I want our citizens to know we have some of the bravest police officers and firefighters in the country," Parks said. "But we don’t have the money to pay them. We have to have fiscal responsibility."
City officials wanted police and fire unions to accept a furlough program that would have required employees to take two unpaid days in each twice monthly pay period. If accepted, emergency responders would have seen a pay cut of about 20 percent for the rest of the year.
What is absolutely amazing to me is how many "progressives" believe in the bogus science of global warming yet seem unable to get the mind around the fact that "progressive" policies have failed time after time. Just look around and you can see failure after failure.
In fact, is there one problem in the history of humanity that some "progressive" policy has actually solved? Poverty? Crime? Education?
Turning your city into crime ridden cesspool?
Now that's "progressive"!
More........
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