Wojtek Sent from my Droid On Sep 30, 2012 6:20 AM, "Fernando Cassia" <fcassia at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/nyregion/overrun-by-crime-camden-trades-in-its-police-force.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
>
> CAMDEN, N.J. — Two gruesome murders of children last month served as
> reminders of this city’s reputation as the most dangerous in
> America<
> http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20091124/NEWS01/911240338/Report-ranks-Camden-most-dangerous-U-S-city
> >.
> Others can be found along the blocks of row houses spray-painted “R.I.P.,”
> empty liquor bottles clustered on their porches in memorial to murder
> victims.
>
> The police acknowledge that they have **all but ceded these streets to
> crime, with murders on track to break records this year**. And now, in a
> **desperate move to regain control, city officials are planning to disband
> the Police Department**.
>
> The reason, officials say, is that **generous union contracts have made it
> financially impossible to keep enough officers on the street**. So in
> November, Camden, which has already had substantial police layoffs, will
> begin **terminating the remaining 273 officers and give control to a new
> county force**. The move, officials say, will **free up millions to hire a
> larger, nonunionized force of 400 officers** to safeguard the city, which
> is also the nation’s poorest.
>
> Hardly a political battle of the last several years has been fiercer than
> the one over the fate of public sector unions. But Camden’s decision to
> **remake perhaps the most essential public service** for a city riven by
> crime underscores how **communities are taking previously unimaginable
> steps** to **get out from under union obligations** that built up over
> generations.
>
> ---
> FC
> --
> During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary
> act
> - George Orwell
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