Chief you said something about Oakland not being the Wild Wild West

Suffer These Crimes in Oakland? Don't Call the Cops
Dozens of layoffs effective at midnight, barring last minute deal

Oakland's police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.

Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.

Some 80 officers were to be let go at midnight last night if a last-minute deal was not reached. That's about ten percent of the work force.

That deadline has been extended to Tuesday morning with a possible council vote at 10:30 a.m.

Here's a partial list:

burglary; theft; embezzlement; grand theft; grand theft:dog; identity theft; false information to peace officer; required to register as sex or arson offender; dump waste or offensive matter; discard appliance with lock; loud music; possess forged notes; pass fictitious check; obtain money by false voucher; fraudulent use of access cards; stolen license plate; embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400); extortion; attempted extortion;
false personification of other; injure telephone/ power line; interfere with power line
unauthorized cable tv connection; vandalism; administer/expose poison to another's

...Batts said the 80 officers slated to be laid off - mostly new officers - are "pretty sad and pretty depressed," and those feelings are shared by the Police Department as a whole.

The Oakland City Council voted June 25 to eliminate the positions to help close the city's $32.5 million funding gap. According to the city of Oakland, each of the 776 police officers currently employed at OPD costs around $188,000 per year. Most of the officers who will be affected by the layoffs were on the streets of Oakland when Johannes Mehserle's involuntary manslaughter conviction caused riots last Thursday.

OK, question. What does Mehserle have to do with the layoff plan the city has? That is a really pathetic attempt to connect anything doing with the cops to the BART officer's issue.

The sticking point in negotiations appears to be job security. The city council asked OPD officers to pay nine percent of their salary toward their pensions, which would save the city about $7.8 million toward a multi-million dollar deficit. The police union agreed, as long as the city could promise no layoffs for three years. No dice, says city council president Jane Brunner....

The problem is money. In the last five years, the police budget -- along with the fire department budget -- have amount to 75 percent of the general fund. After years of largely sparing those departments the budget ax, now it appears there are few other places to cut.

The problem is money...I would have never guessed. Question, will you first look at eliminating any "diversity coordinators" or "multicultural affairs officers"? Or is that a bad joke? Hopefully this can be worked out but as long as Oakland is a lawless city (Sorry Chief) the middle class will run from it and take their taxes with them.