There are 80 members of the Torrington police department according to a statement I heard on WZBG radio news. A starting police officer in 2016 would get a salary of $66,166 and according to their own statistics there are 638 crimes reported in Torrington every year. That is eight crimes per member of the department per year. I propose lowering the number of people in the department to save us all another budget crisis.
Who in their right mind would criticize the local police? The First Amendment guarantees my right to criticize and the 14th Amendment guarantees my right to equal protection, to be treated the same as everyone else. But that doesn’t protect me from the Police. We have all seen the videos. Police shoot people and lose their jobs, but I would be dead.
Maybe you think I am over-reacting. Maybe you think the police are good people and would never unjustly treat anyone for any reason. I wish that were true. I can tell you stories, lots of stories, from people in Torrington. And you reply, oh, those people are bad people you can’t believe what they say…. The point is I am judged a fool, a maniac to propose cutting the Torrington tax burden by cutting the number of police in town. But I am doing just that.
I am under no misconceptions. I can list all the objections, the continued personnel costs regardless of the loss of manpower, the fear that crime would increase, that for every call there would be three instead of five officers responding, the fact that neither Republocrats or Demopublicans support cutting police departments, that costs will be significantly higher in the future if we have to re-hire, that we will be placing highly paid professionals out of work and their families at risk…
Yes I admit I am judged a fool for suggesting it. I am likely to see no results. I want smaller government, fewer taxes, competition and value in government service. I want to pay my taxes and see results, not pay a tribute and hope the government will remember me when I want something.
I have a plan, but the plan is judged as crazy, as too radical. Cut Government on the local level? It would save us Big Bucks, no one will doubt that, but they may argue that the savings are not that big since every officer will get severance benefits, pensions and all the things big government promised them when they were hired.
Just like a plan to privatize teaching. Everyone knows big government has made a monopoly on teaching and the only option to make education any better is to pay higher taxes. I know it is an uphill battle.
In Meriden, CT earlier this month people like me, crazy Libertarians, were in a public place soliciting signatures to be placed on the ballot in November for State and Federal elections. We are doing this because it is the only way to break Big Government’s monopoly. We are the third party and the Constitution guarantees us Free Speech and Equal Protection. Also please note that our big government was built by both big political parties, hand in hand, and is protected and maintained by them.
The Mayor of Meriden Connecticut, where the use of the bean whistle is against the law, called on the Police force to keep Libertarians from Constitutionally exercising their rights to free speech, free assembly and equal protection by the law. This should be a big deal to us all, this should show us that we are not the free people we think we are.
Here is the complaint filed in State courts, but if it is not settled is sure to go to a Federal Civil Rights court.
Libertarians are on the ballot in every State for Federal elections and some States for local elections. Connecticut is a Democrat State who unashamedly looks for “revenue streams” so they don’t have to say “increased taxes” out loud. Republicans would never, ever touch the issue of Police employment levels or back down on the war on drugs, sex, immigration, regulation of all manner of protective trade and government based on fear.
Libertarians trust out country, we trust the people. We find it ridiculous when someone is arrested on account of a dozen laws when one would do, then plea bargain to a mere 7 years on prison for a non-violent offense. In 2018 we have many cheaper and better ways to supervise people effectively without sending them to a prison which costs taxpayers more per year than sending them to Yale University.
But I digress. I am a fool, tilting at windmills, dreaming the impossible dream to think we can lower taxes and strengthen Connecticut by giving its people, you and me, MORE freedom instead of further restricting and further supervising and further surveying us. But I believe I am right, and I believe Libertarians have been right since 1971, when the Libertarian Party was founded on a platform that included gay rights and legalization of cannabis.
In 2016 cannabis won more states than Hillary. It is a freedom issue. And the man who promised to de-fund and dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency won the election. Good. That is $8,000,000,000 and 55,000 government employees who have served us well, but are not needed any more. All endangered species are growing, weather models predicting disaster since 1970 have been wrong, global warming is accelerating much slower than predictions and no direct tie has been found from that acceleration to Carbon Dioxide emissions regardless of Greenhouse Gas theory.
Dismantling the EPA will not cause disaster, and neither will a reduced police force in Torrington Connecticut.