Cleveland: 252 police to lose jobs on Monday
01/01/04
Cleveland Plain Dealer
(edited for space- click here to read the entire story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Mayor Jane Campbell will cut $21 million from the 2004 police budget, mostly by eliminating 263 positions. Five of the officers, however, are being transferred to jobs in other departments, and six others were due to retire.
The layoffs, which take effect Monday, will leave the Police Department with about 1,560 officers.
Cleveland police union members soundly rejected a deal to sacrifice benefits and save jobs.
Bob Beck, president of the police union, said members refused to accept the concessions because they feel they were being asked to bear the brunt of closing the city's $61 million general fund deficit.
"We will not have the blame deflected on us for the mayor's mismanagement," Beck said.
"They spend money from the general fund like they have $1 million in the checking account when they only have $500,000."
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The police union will pursue a lawsuit against the city to block the cuts. Lawyers for both sides will meet in court Wednesday to argue the union's request for a restraining order.
Beck said that if the union loses the court case, it will lobby City Council members to reject the mayor's budget plan.
Campbell pledged that Cleveland's streets will remain safe. A redeployment plan will take police from behind desk jobs and onto the streets.
Yesterday seemed to mark the low point of Campbell's relationship with the police, who feuded with her predecessor and endorsed Campbell when she ran for mayor in 2001.
Beck praised Campbell during her first two years in office but yesterday accused her of being unfair to police and treating them like dollar figures instead of human beings.
Campbell replied: "I was totally committed to our police officers and I still am."
Commentary:
Mayor Campbell "unfair to police"? What about her constituents, who are suffering under ever-increasing violent crime rates in that city? According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland's violent-crime rate in 2002 was 9 percent higher than it was in 1999.
Which also begs the question - how can Campbell pledge "Cleveland's streets will remain safe" when they are already very unsafe?
No matter what the number of police officers patrolling Ohio's urban streets are, the fact is that they will never be able to be responsible for protecting defenseless citizens. They will never be able to arrive in time to save lives that are typically taken from unarmed citizens in a few seconds of violence.
The job of self-defense is the responsibility of each and every person. In the midst of law enforcement budget cuts and rising violent crime rates, Ohio's Governor and a few term-limited Republican Senators should be ashamed for continuing to protect laws which make self-protection a felony in Ohio.
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