And they want us to vote No on the repeal of the income tax!!!
"Streetwise; By walking beats, Boston police aim to improve community relations and help people feel safer" by Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | November 3, 2008
Boston Police Officer Thomas Hill used to spend his days filling out the payroll, writing out assignments for patrolmen, and setting up vacation schedules. But on a recent morning, after figuring out who would pull extra shifts that night, he grabbed his hat, pulled on his coat, and stepped onto Albany Street. Time to walk.
During an hourlong stroll, he traveled from the Pine Street Inn, where shivering homeless people waited for the doors to open, to Peters Park, where young professionals and mothers with Bugaboos strollers unleashed their dogs, sipped coffee, and leisurely read the newspaper.
Yup, such SUFFERING amidst such SPLENDOR!!! Yup, TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS, but NOTHING for the American people!!!
And how sad that I am so much like the young pros -- in the morning at least. Then I come to DO THIS!!!
Hill, a chief clerk in District 4, has worked a desk job since 1999, but over the past year he has joined a battalion of administrative officers who go on patrols a couple times a week, under orders from Commissioner Edward F. Davis, as part of the department's intensifying efforts to increase police visibility in neighborhoods.
How come you never hear much about the police unconstitutionally disarming residents anymore, readers? Little obfuscating and cover-up of the totalitarian state, MSM? Little PROMOTION of it, in fact?
Superintendent Daniel Linskey, who leads the Bureau of Field Services, has ordered more than 160 police clerks, sergeants, and deputy superintendents to hit the streets. Even officers from such elite units as the bomb squad and K-9 patrol, who usually hunt streets for guns and explosives, are walking a beat when they're not responding to scenes, Linskey said.
The move, which affects only uniformed police, not detectives, is aimed at making residents feel safer and improving community relations. But as state budget constraints threaten to cut into the department's community policing program, it is also a way to reduce costs.
Also see: Panhandler Patrol
Seeing my point now?
They couldn't MAKE THESE CHANGES EARLIER? Wasting the $$$ was okay?
More officers on the streets means commanders have to send fewer cruisers out to respond to crime scenes, which saves on gas, police said.
Yeah, global warming got it.
And it may help police deal with a smaller-than-expected workforce next year. Already, police officials are worried they will not be able to afford to hire all the officers enrolled in the December class at the Police Academy.
A boon for PRIVATE SECURITY firms like BLACKWATER, no doubt!!!
"We're unsure how the government cuts are going to impact us," Linskey said. "It's a little bit of a chess game. If we're putting guys on the street, that means I don't need to have a car in the area covering it at that time. We're maximizing resources."
What took so long?
It is unclear how the rest of the rank and file feel about the changes. Thomas Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, did not return a call seeking comment. Mark Parolin, vice president of the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, declined to comment, saying he wanted to learn more about the changes.
But residents seem to like them. Toya Irish, property manager at Mandela Homes, a 276-unit apartment complex at Washington and Hammond streets, said parents have started letting their children play in nearby Ramsey Park because more officers are walking near the complex. Before, they kept their children away, fearful of the heavy drinkers and drug dealers who sometimes hang around the park.
"I think it's made a significant difference. I hope it continues," Irish said. But, she added, "we could use some more" officers. On Paul Sullivan Way, near the Pine Street Inn, Hill's morning took a more dramatic turn when he approached two women sitting on a curb.
One of them, Doreen Moore, a 54-year-old homeless woman from Brockton, offered Hill a lollipop. "Are you dressed up for Halloween as a police officer?" she asked, smiling. Her grin quickly faded and tears sprang to her eyes as she told Hill she had nowhere to go.
Homelessness: AmeriKa's GREATEST SCANDAL!!! And we PUT UP WITH IT!!
Also see: Who Remembers Timothy Finch?
They have never solved that murder, either, folks.
But the Boston cops got time to cruise the strip, bust brothels, hang out in bars and buy drugs, as well as pose as panhandlers!!
More: Rich and Homeless Living Together
"I don't even know where I am," she said. Hill told her she was in the South End, but she just stared at him and said that meant nothing to her. When she said she has been suicidal, and showed him scars on her wrists, he urged her to go to the shelter and ask about any programs they could offer her.
Yup, TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS, but NOTHING for THIS DESPERATE WOMAN!!!
Hill walked away, not sure what else to do. He returned to Peters Park and watched children frolic on the swings and slides at the playground. But Moore remained on his mind.
"Hopefully, she changes her attitude about wanting to live," he said.
And now the cop is troubled -- as would any feeling being after such an encounter.
He looked at his cellphone and saw the hour was almost up. Hill began walking back to his office. He still had to finish next week's schedule and assign officers to overtime shifts. --more--"
