Joe Norley, West Chester Community Activist, posted an article recently regarding the costs of last weeks "Dubfest" link to that article here : http://www.knowjoe.tumblr.com/
Joe Norley brings up a good point. Who will pay for the extra police expenses from Dubfest last weekend? In the end, we all know that like anything else, John Q Taxpayer picks up the bill. But is that fair?
Since he's a resident, I assume Joe's answer is no.
All across the state and the nation, local, state and federal agencies are tightening budgets. One need look no further than the cities of Philadelphia and Coatesville to see municipalities struggling to operate within budget constraints while maintaining certain levels of service. To my knowledge, the largest single piece of most municipalities' budgets is the police department. For a municipality to have to shell out extra money to
cover an event that is not supported by most taxpayers would certainly leave a bad taste in my mouth as a tax payer too. Joe, in this respect, I feel your pain.
Some will blame the police department for over-reacting. These same people would blame the police department if something bad did happen and the police were had not prepared for it.
Maybe Dubfest is not the best example. How do we hold specific people responsible for an "event" is not clearly "organized" by any one person or group of persons.In a perfect world, it would be the users that a are charged user fees for services. In other words, if you plan an event that requires police service, you are responsible to pay for that service. If you committ a crime that requires police response, you pay for that service. It would be just like paying a water bill, or paying for trash pick-up. Unfortunately, we already know that this is not a perfect world, and the system is not a perfect system. Joe, I fear that you (and your fellow tax paying residents) will be stuck holding the bill. I'm sure not many people will say this, so let me be the first...Thank You.
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John Q,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate you writing this blog and your thank you means a lot to me. That alone is worth all the fire I've taken from certain elements within our community who think they can do whatever they want at other people's expense. There are a growing number of people that are actually being held accountable for their ill advised actions with social media. I'm sure our council will take a hard look at pursuing legal remedies to try and spare the taxpayers this expense and set a precedent for others who burden the community with bad ideas.
Finally, I'd be remiss in not turning this around on you though, by putting out a mighty thank you from grateful residents to the West Chester Police Department and all the other officers who selflessly serve our surrounding communities.