I guess you've never been to Oakland where stray bullets hit people while sleeping or driving on the freeways.
What is the purpose of the police? To provide safety and security. Then why aren't the people who own a third of the wealth pay a third of the police budget? The Police don't do much to protect the big stores... we have tons of documented videos of swarms of crooks in hoodies, masks and gloves breaking into big chains and the employees are told to let them take the stuff, not not risk their lives. They might team up with other cities to help solve these crime waves, but then you need DAs who aren't big into blaming society for criminal behavior i.e. lock them up and a high bail, rather than the common "catch and release."
The crooks also hit small businesses to loot everything from shoes to fine jewelry. Often they steal cars, drive them into storefronts of mom and pop shops and then try to haul out the ATMs using the cars they stole.
It is really sad to see so many small restaurants on TV these days being interviewed for a small loss of property or cash in a locked register but thousands of dollars of damage to their business from broken doors, windows, glass, and display cases.
I'd argue the police are more benefit to protect the crime riddled cities from the criminals. In the wealthy towns, the criminals doing property crime usually come from outside.
Solving murders is not based on wealth. San Jose, the largest city in the Bay Area, has a 100% murder clearance rate while Oakland it was about a third at only 35%! SJ may be more diverse but the crime is far less so the resources can solve crimes.
Anyway, at the Federal Level, we need to reduce the size of the military to save money. I thought Trump was going to do that after he "right sized" it in his first term but... he seems to continue to increase spending even as he gets NATO and other nations to buy more of our equipment.
The size and cost of government pensions is a problem bankrupting the blue states I think and the solution is easy to see but impossible now with so many "voters" having been bought with government jobs and pensions, especially the powerful teachers, police, firefighter and hospital worker unions. |
