-
- U.S.
moving from local to fed law
enforcement
- Sunnyside
gets 2 fed-funded cops
- SUNNYSIDE (Friday,
4-16-99)---Sunnyside will get a $150,000 grant from
the federal Dept. of Justice to hire two full-time
police officers for community policing, Democrat
Patty Murray said today.
-
- Libertarian Party
leaders, meanwhile, fear the U.S. is heading for a
federal police force akin to Mexico's "Federales".
And they don't like it.
-
- But Democrat Murray,
announcing the Sunnyside grant today, says
"Community policing is a positive step toward
reducing crime in America. Placing more police
officers on our streets and in our neighborhoods
helps create a better way of life for
everyone."
-
- The grant comes from
the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS). It's part of the larger Universal Hiring
Program established in 1994 with the goal of
putting more cops on the nation's
streets.
-
- To date, COPS has
provided funds to more than 10,000 law enforcement
agencies, adding more than 92,000 federally funded
local officers..
-
- The grant allows
Sunnyside PD to help pay 75 percent of the salary
and benefits of both officers over three years, to
a maximum $75,000. Sunnyside folks will contribute
the rest.
-
- Murray supported the
1994 Crime Bill that created COPS. "Encouraging
effective local solutions to our crime problems is
commons sense," she said.
-
- The Libertarian Party
says they aren't so pleased with the 1994 Crime Bill,
its restrictions on gun ownership, and
"federalization" of traditionally local police
departments.
-
- "President Clinton
likes it because it allows him to talk tough, while
- not doing anything.
Clinton boasted that the crime bill will make
'every
- neighborhood in
America safer.' He was lying -- and he knows it,"
said
- Steve Dasbach, head of
America's third largest party.
-
- "Even adding 100,000
new police officers will not guarantee a reduced
- crime rate," said
Dasbach, speaking in 1994.
-
- "After all, the
District of Columbia has more police officers
- per capita than any
other major American city. It also has one of the
- highest crime rates.
All this bill does is further curtail the civil
- liberties of
law-abiding citizens. It surrenders traditionally
local law
- enforcement to the
federal government. And it's loaded with billions
in
- wasteful spending,"
Dasbach charged.
-
|