Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sen. Kerry Blasts House for Cutting Police Funding

Senator John F. Kerry blasted the Republican controlled House for taking a “meat ax’’ to crucial items in the proposed federal budget, reported the Boston Globe. Kerry said Republicans are attempting to dismantle a program (COPS) he helped spearhead in 1994, with GOP support, to put more than 100,000 additional police officers on the streets. He said crime decreased 1.5 percent since then, and violent crime dropped 2.5 percent.

“Well, I didn’t know that we had ended crime in America,’’ Kerry told the National Fraternal Order of Police in Boston. “But some of our Republican friends evidently think that none of this matters. I mean, none of it. We’re caught up now in one of the most ridiculous moments that I’ve ever seen in all the time that I’ve been in public life.’’

Todd Bramwell, the president of the Massachusetts FOP chapter, said taxpayers benefit little from cutting police, since they have to then pay unemployment and other benefits. Then, he said, taxpayers are left with the risk of an increase in crime. “The actual cost isn’t really saving the taxpayers much money,’’ he told the Globe.

To read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/13/kerry_tells_police_union_that_the_gop_is_making_cuts_without_considering_impact/

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