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America's Deadliest And Poorest City Set To Disband Its Entire Police Force Over Budget Crisis
While the stock market in the US continues to surge (if not so much in China where the composite is back to 2009 lows) as the relentless liquidity tsunami makes its way into stocks, and other Fed frontrunning instruments, and only there, reality for everyone else refuses to wait. Last week we saw reality striking in Greece, where a section of Athens literally shut down after it ran out of all cash. Today, reality comes to the US, and specifically its poorest city, Camden, which is a twofer, doubling down also as America's deadliest city. It turns out Camden is about to become even deadliest-er, as its police force is set to be disbanded following a budget crisis in this effectively insolvent city.
This city, long among the nation's poorest and most crime-ridden, is on the verge of dismantling its police department and starting anew with a force run by the county government.
City officials are making the move to increase the number of officers while keeping the cost the same by averting rules negotiated with a union that city officials have seen as unwilling to compromise.
Unless the union - which is skeptical of the stated motivations for the change - reaches a deal with the county, no more than 49 per cent of the city's current officers could join the new force and those that do will get pay cuts.
John Wilson, a 57-year-old unemployed baker who's lived in the city his whole life, thinks it's worth a try.
'The police in Camden clearly haven't been doing their job,' he said last week as he walked to his home in the Parkside neighborhood, which has seen six homicides since the start of 2011.
'Any change has to be better. It can't get worse now.'
Oh yes it can. Here's why:
Officials say there are about 170 drug markets operating in this city of 77,000 near Philadelphia, more than 700 people on parole and 600 registered sex offenders.
The murder rate is unthinkably high. In 2007, Newark attracted national attention for a record number of homicides.
As of Friday, there had been 47 murders this year. The city record of 58 was set in 1995.
One can only hope this is not a harbinger of what is coming to all American cash flow, not money dilution ability, ends. Sadly, for Camden there is no more hope.
The city has the nation's highest poverty rate with more than two residents in five living in poverty, census data show.
The big factories that once made Camden an industrial boomtown have been gone for a generation.
Over the past decade, revitalization efforts focused on expanding hospitals and universities, which brought some life to downtown but had a less discernible effect on neighborhoods where even the best-kept blocks have abandoned homes.
The city expects only $25 million of its $150 million next proposed budget to come from property taxes. Most of the rest is supplied by state aid - and that's declining.
Think massive ECB bailouts, which in the US are far more streamlined. As for the local residents who still are paying property taxes, it may be prudent to just take your real estate losses and move on. Or else...
In January 2011, the city government conducted massive layoffs, including nearly half the police department and about one-third of the firefighters.
Since then, all the laid-off public safety workers have been called back, but their numbers have fallen through attrition.
Now, there are 270 police officers, down from 450 in 2005 and 368 the day before the layoffs.
Police Chief Scott Thomson, who is slated to lead the Camden County Police Department's Metro Division, points to crime statistics for the two years before the layoffs that showed the crime declining.
He says it's because of intensive community policing efforts that came about when detectives were reassigned from desk jobs to patrols and the force was able to be more proactive.
With the smaller force, he said, walking and biking beats are used more sparingly.
In the meantime, the local cops are all preparing to bail as entitlement funding runs out
The Fraternal Order of Police lodge that represents Camden's rank-and-file officers is upset that they have not been presented with a formal plan.
Cappelli says officers in the new department would have base salaries that are the same or higher than what they make now - ranging from $31,000 for a rookie to about $80,000.
Officers' health insurance contributions would increase, and officers would also lose longevity and shift differential payments that combined can boost their pay up to 22 per cent.
The plan is to start hiring for the new force in October and have a mix of city and county police patrol the city during a training period before shutting down the city department sometime in the first few months of 2013.
The plan will not work. Good luck Camden: you will need it in your transformation to the first circle of US hell, soon to be joined by many more.
And here are some pictures of just what Dante would see in his modern descent into America.
Shocking crimes: A Camden police officer stands in the doorway of a home on August 22 in New Jersey's most impoverished city, where authorities say a 2-year-old boy was decapitated, apparently by his mother
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" the governer could always pull a Barry Choomwagon and claim he "inherited" a "budget deficit" and "high crime problem in Camden."
He already has, pull your head out of your ass and recognize that there is only one party, for the banks and financial houses, by the banks and financial houses. How much fraud has Mr. Christie prosecuted again? I am sure all of those abandon homes are on some bank's balance sheet as a "valuable asset". That is fucking fruad, go get them Mr. Christie you fat fuck, then I'll be impressed.
Those are some fine looking citizens. Maybe a bit more money printing along with some hope and change is all they need.
Camden, proof of the lefts' leadership.
No. It's just proof that "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is the best show since Seinfeld.
The social commentary and satire is fantastic and ahead of the curve. Comedy is full of truth which is what makes it great.
Yeah, that's it, keep believing that left/right paradigm you stupid fucking sheep. The banks and financial houses thank you for your support.
Ahhh.. good old New Jersey. Home of Jon Corzine, Jim Mcgreevy (remember him and his resignation?), and Jim Florio.
Their used to be a website listing the "Hall of Shame" of New Jersey politicians.. whom were by far and large democrats. It looks like those pages are gone now. But yeah, theres tonnes of corruption stories here.. it's awful.
IDC
And 12 miles East down Rt 73 or North Rt. 130 is Middle class suburbia. Go figure? Coming to a town near you.
This is why we need to look within ourselves and our culture. The govmint is not the solution. Even with an unlimited police force, an unlimited supply of prisons, and unlimited funding, the Camden problem would remain. When they were fully funded Camden was a shit hole. The problem is within the people that live there. The solution can only come from the people that live there. They need to figure it out.
"look within ourselves and our culture"
Bingo. Now we are getting somewhere...
To help your neighbour is to help yourself.
Correct, but in doing so those in power will have to incriminate themselves. Nothing changes until the moral hazard is addressed, hedge accordingly.
Agreed. In your opinion, how is the best way to address the moral hazard issue?
A gold standard Or settle all trade deficits in something fucking real, something that can not be created by a relative few out of thin fucking air. It will come to this eventually as supply lines start to break.
Sorry about dups. This thread is running poorly on my system.
...
Wait, isn't that a core concept of free market capitalism as well (not state-capitalism or fascism which is prevalent in most first world nations today)? Providing something of benefit to others which benefits both parties. Imagine that...
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" hasn't really worked out that well in application of a principle so far. Redistribution of wealth might buy votes, but the system is morally bankrupt, and will be fiscally as well eventually...
Sorry, unfortunately this is now a multi-cultural society. Other cultures are either in direct conflict with the predominant culture of Camden, or are disgusted by it, or ignore it. The only thing other cultures can agree on is they're all tired of it.
So, why do you think it has come to this? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
Big Corporate moving out along time ago, not enough security at the brand new multi million dollar Camden waterfront attraction. They were Federalized once before then fell back into the hands of the local juristriction just to go to shit again. Social and community problems, open air drug sales, prostitution, theft, burgularies strong arm car jackings, get the picture?
The whole town has been in slow decline since Campbell soups pulled out of there. That was the lynch pin of that area where everyone growing up has worked there. Just horrible, and it's 11 miles down the road from me. I live in a very nice middle class neighborhood and that element is migrating out towards us now.
Run, Forrest, Run!
That's why I've started visiting Rayco Armory in Merchantville.
Now you know why gun sales are booming. Got guns?
I got a great deal on a semi-auto rifle from a NJ LEO agency because their legislators don't think that NJ residents deserve the same rights as we do here in Texas (not that this is entirely a bastion of liberty). If the criminals are allowed to defend themselves, why not free men, honest citizens of that state? Mine has two features that scare liberal housewives and legislators in NJ, so it gets sold out of state (decreasing needed revenue in the process). Imagine if NJ citizens were given carte blanche (such as they are in Wyoming) to defend themselves and their property, and if drug prohibition were ended as well. Law enforcement might not be needed after all if the laws they primarily aggressively enforce are no longer required.
New Jersey is the poster child for US economic inequality.
New Jersey has the highest per household income of all the 50 states.
New Jersey also contains 3 of the 5 poorest cities in the country.
Incredible, but true.
Also check out CT, the difference between Greenwich and New Haven or some of the other coastal cities is breathtaking.
Yeah, CT comes in a distant second to NJ in the "Extreme Inequality Sweepstakes". CT has the second highest per household income in the country, along with urban hellholes like Bridgeport and New Haven.
We tend to find this to be the case in close proximity to legislative centers. I wonder why?
The people in Camden wanted:
1) Diversity in government
2) Racial equality
3) Jobs
4) More Government help (state and Fed)
5) Union jobs
6) Lower state sales tax(3% in the combat zones like Camden)
7) Hope and Change
8) Affordable Housing
9) Better schools
10) Schools
11) Safer communites....
I truly feel sorry for the hard working families, and the kids that are stuck in that hell hole!
Where the hell is Fat Al and Jesse "the crook" Jackson????? Not to mention Mr. Hope and Change!!!!
Four more years! (Not that the moron would help Camden, either one.)
We will see more of this and worse until the country decides that central planning is not the answer and the focus comes back to the community. By the time that happens there is going to have to be a big house cleaning of undesirables.
Put a fence around Camden and let it go to hell completely.
The Rolling stones say
You gotta move
You gotta move
You gotta move, child
You gotta move
Oh, when the lord gets ready
You gotta move
You may be high
You may be low
You may be rich, child
You may be poor
But when the lord gets ready
You gotta move
You see that woman
Who walks the street
You see that police
Upon his beat
But then the lord gets ready
You gotta move
You gotta move
Unfortunately, (and I know I'll get slated for saying this) this is what you'd expect to see as the 'Libertarian Model' of government/society develops. You see increasingly larger areas of anarchy in poorer regions. Withdrawal of any safeguards against poverty ensure ever greater crime while wealthier areas collect private wealth and create oasis of order, gated communities protected by armed security guards. As the wealthy increasingly fear the poor ever greater amounts of money are diverted away from the anarchic regions and into the protection of property.
In the end you either end up with totalitarianism, extreme order, or anarchy, extreme disorder. Pretty piss poor choice if you ask me.
Why have extreme disorder when you can spend billions of dollars, write hundreds of laws, imprison millions of minorities, and fund international crime syndicates all around the world for the same shitty results?
Well, they're not quite at anarchic levels yet but it is on the way. I'm sure the billion$ don't end up where it could help, and the laws protect the wealthy and not the impoverished and you could have a million laws like that and it wouldn't help.
Where do you think the billions would help? Because NJ has a pretty big pension gap at this point.
sorry, accidental double post.
There’s an old joke about a tourist in Ireland who asks one of the locals for directions to Dublin. The Irishman replies: ‘Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’.
We need a paradigm shift in the way we think about community and that can only occur once the current system has collapsed in on itself. I was flicking through a high class style magazine earlier today which ws looking back over the last decade. Quite depressing. Full of the latest must have designer clothes and beauty products. Life has to be about more than the aquisition of goods. Human Beings need a broader ambition, something more worthy. Space not war, infrastructure development not financial/political scams and stitch ups, and above all else a considered and inclusive plan about where we all want to be in 50, 100, 200 years, and not the day to day make dos and papering over the cracks that we,ve seen over the last 25 years.
You're correct, billion$ probably wouldn't help "at this point"
Self motivation would be a start. State cannot legislate that anymore than they can happiness.
This isn't about libertarianism, this is about Hominids with low IQs, low impulse control, high birth rates, and high time preferences. I would wager half the population of Camden can't even read the word "libertarianism'. Nor Socialism, totalitarianism, nor any other -ism which would be called upon to rationalize their failure to civilize.
And what you see here is not the result of a libertarian model of government, nor of the removal of safeguards against poverty. These feral districts have all been heavily subsidized by State and Federal government for decades. I believe they call it "Cultural Enrichment" or "Social Justice".
Libertarianism wouldn't work among a population of 5 year olds either. You'd just get Lord of the Flies. Kind of like Camden, like Detroit, like Johannesburg, like Haiti.
I can see.
Exactly: Under a libertarian system, these failures would have been washed out of the gene pool decades ago. Instead, we have propped it all up and made it 100 times worse. How is it humane to create the conditions such that more and more humans will be born into such poverty?
If you believe that those hundred's of thousands (millions??) of souls, or the soon to be "washed out members of the gene pool", as you think of them, will obligingly 'go gently into the night and not rage' (to paraphrase Dylan Thomas) then you are a bigger fool than you understand.
New Jersey is the epitome of failed socialist state. Not a single knowledgable human would call the state of New Jersey a "Lebertarian Model". You might want to check your definitions. Cities like Camden didnt' start decaying the day Chis Christy became govenor which is sort of what I think you may be implying. Corzine had control over it and he's a limosine liberal and a crook which one may more readily point a finger to. But the reality of the situation is that it is the people that live in the community that end up being responsible for the shape of the community. A libertarian model may have a state in this condition but it would be flushed out and allowed to start over. A socialist, communist state would allow a Cameden to continue to exist in this shape for generations as they don't foster growth, just dependence like a junkie.
How do they know crime will go up once the police force leaves?
Crime should go down...since there won't be a place for citizens to report it.
Another victory in the War on Drugs! USA! USA! USA!
If Camden is anything like Baltimore, then no police officer in the history of the city ever prevented a crime.
Though this does seem like they just turned Camden into
Hamsterdam.
Just shut it down.
There are too many dacades-old slums in America to count. They just quit showing them on the Tee-Vee starting back in the 80's. Movin' on up!
Looks like Detroit of the east. Many more Detroits coming. Until the US submits to the global elite slave salary (like Foxconn) expect more of the same. US wages and living standards have a long ways to fall.
The globalist are entertained by the riots and making money off of the planned wars.
This is just barely news at this point. Several cities in CA have done this over the last few years, for the same reasons.
On the other hand, this could be a good starting point for "Escape from New York". Call Snake Pliskin and find out what he thinks.
Americans are the best and first with giving a hand up to those who sincerely want to suceed .... now we as a nation need a hand up to fix this mess .... don't hold your breath .... guns 'n' gold 'n' get away ! www.obamasrealfather.com
We all need more laws! That will solve everything. Oh, and bigger government too obviously:
Africans Relocate to Alabama to Fill Jobs After Immigration Lawhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-24/africans-relocate-to-alabama-to...
Just remember, everybody, it is your work and money that must go to support whatever entitlements the residents of that city want, and whatever salary the police and bloated government sectors demand (until now, since we're broke).
And if you say anything, you are a racist or worse, a terrorist.
Eventually all the multicultural propaganda in the world will not be enough to hide the dysfunctional reality.
The Boomers will die and take their liberal socialist idealism with them. Some youth are fooled, some are not. I wager as the middle class collapses and more are forced into close arrangements with the Undertow, more will awaken.
Propaganda has its limits.
Correct. Propaganda (known in the U.S. as "the news") does have it's limits. TPTB have lost control of just about everything except "the news" at this point, and the coming MASS ARRESTS will force an awakening on the people like the world has never seen... http://tinyurl.com/cd5cyjo/
Free tip:
Don't hold your breath waiting for those 'Mass Arrests".
I've been through Camden. I'd just as soon they nuke it from orbit.
The only good thing to come out of Camden in the last 20 years was Quicksand (a band). City looks like something out of 1992 post-Soviet Russia. THIS is what bankers do to cities... Don't let it happen to yours!
Yeah, see all that grafitti? Bankers did that.
Yes, because everyone knows that bankers go on welfare, have 8 sprogs by as many men and perpetuate the cycle in the next generation!
Bankers are also known to form street gangs, run drugs, commit assaults, robberies and drive by shootings!
c'mon, who really believes that "public safety" is going to be affected in any way by telling 270 donut eating lardbutts to take their feet off the desk for good and go home? At best they've probably only got 40 beat cops left along with 230 administrators - can them all!
best way to fix Camden - reinstate "devils night" and this time, pay a $500 bounty for every building that gets burnt down. Ban all rebuilding. Eventually the whole thing will just be one nice, big, peaceful meadow again.
Just visited the Camden Aquarium a few weeks ago. The Aquarium and the Campbell's Soup campus are probably the only sites worth a look in the entire city. WHAT A DUMP!
I drove VERY fast on the way out...
Yup. And the battleship USS New Jersey (now a museum) anchored on the Camden waterfront is worth a quick look, but that's about it.
I will check that out, from Google Satellite of course.
pods
Oh goodie...
A minarchist fantasy.... let's see how it turns out!
Ah, good. To be checked though.
Even without a police force (and one will have to check the piece many, many times in order to eliminate all the doubts that could be exploited by 'americans'), one can bet there wont be major demonstrations in the US.
US Americans will keep running their usual 'american' business of extorting the weak, farming the poor.
Very often, 'Americans' drop the ball of their inaction on that coercive police force of theirs.
With no police, well...
Oh, wait, Camden is negro land, that will explain why 'americans' do not take actions to fight tyranny in their government.
True 'americans', in the absence of the 'american' coercive police forces would.
Time for some ethnical cleansing, american style, for 'american' freedom to prevail.
What the fuck are you going on about? If only people in the US would stop tolerating all the street goblins, then we might clean up places like Camden. We have the luxury of tolerating this bs, but someday soon maybe we won't.
You cannot and will not get any sort of sensible or coherent reply from this troll, Aerojet --- he is simply our resident (if unwanted) Chinese USA-basher, and is filled with hatred for any and all Americans.
I don't think he has that much animosity for the american pit bull terrier?
pods
No animosity as long as it's being stir fried in his wok.
Looks like I will be staying on this side of the river...
What would happen if air force 1 crash-landed in camden with the president on board?
I smell a William Banzai 'Escape from Camden'.
It's his base so I don't see any problems.
Hell, he could probably do a tour with Golf Cart 1.
What the fuck is a "drug market"...?
Kinda like a flea market,or what...?
Ps....do you BELIEVE officials....?
The drug market is as corrupt and manipulated as a market can be.
Still a drug market is more honest than the "markets" that you are being served as benchmarks of American prosperity and hallmarks of Wall Street's accomplishments.
What the fuck is a "drug market"...?
Kinda like a flea market,or what...?
Ps....do you BELIEVE officials....?
nvmd
south africa minus platinum mines plus 100% welfare
We could legalize all banned substances and reduce the entire country's police force sizes overnight by 50-60%.
And the prison population by 75%.
And that is why it is so unlikely to happen.
Yep, prison is a very big business. Wages even Foxconn envies.
And drugs means asset forfeiture and job security.
pods
Provide all the citizens with free hand guns and training and watch the crime rate drop dramatically.
Today Camden tomorrow America. I wonder though if Mexico is ready for the flood of gringos that will be sneaking over the border to escape the poverty and violence? I wonder if they will be generous or if they will prove once and for all that payback really is a bitch.
Mexico would shit a brick with 20,000 armed Americans crossing over for the Re-Re-Conquista.
With the police gone, the city can declare an end to the drug war, and decrease crime, and violence.
I don't see that as very likely, since local police are only a part of the war on drugs (which is simply a war on people and voluntary exchanges). There are still state and federal law enforcement more than willing to violently fill that role. I would imagine that the drug trade will likely become more violent in places like this with the absence of local law enforcement willing to make judgement calls regarding hardened, violent criminals versus average drug users. In the eyes of the feds, everyone is a criminal, they do not discern.
The govt is going to fence the whole city in right? The last thing you'd want is those people getting out.
It's probably just a matter of time before this trend gains momentum. There are already a handful of municipalities across the country that have filed bankruptcy, with most being in California (big surprise). If welfare were to cease, the residents of Camden would likely leave, as there are already precious few reasons to stay.
Maybe ending prohibition of voluntary exchanges such as these would help to reduce crime. If law enforcement focuses on activities that are not intrinsically violent, and the prohibition of those activities is what causes the violence which consumes a significant portion of law enforcement man hours, then Camden should shine as an example of what does not work. It has never worked, and the collapse of this region is a prime example.
I wish the people of Camden good luck. Maybe it won't be so bad.
Perfect "teachable moment" right here. Whatever Camden has been doing for the last several decades as a municipality, DO NOT COPY. It doesn't work. It's been a dumpster fire for quite a long time. Slowly and methodically rotting. This didn't just happen in the last year or even since 2007-08 so the latest economic crisis the country has endured cannot be used as an excuse. Maybe sped up the process and shone a light but it's been decades in the making. They could turn it around using the "George Costanza" method. Whatever they've been doing, what is their natural instincts to do in governing, DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE.
...what's the price?...30 twice
...what's the reason?,,,grapes in season
I'm sure they will sort it out. I never read about one bust in Camden any how! I'm sure plenty of dealers lost their load to, crooked, cops who discount it up in Harlem.
I'll bet an equilibrium will be had and true justice and commerce will prevail.
FUCK THOSE DICKS.
GOOD THING THEY NEGLECTED TO EXTEND THOSE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.
There is finally some good news in this recession.
I can't wait until it comes here. We have almost 1000 Police here and only 200,000 people in the city.
Can't spit without hitting a Cop.
One month and Camden will be depopulated, bulldozed and returned to the land.
Then the property values will skyrocket with dollar signs gleaming in the eyes of those across the river.
We have a oppertunity here. A great one. But no one is doing anything except to carry on with those who are unable to, cannot afford to or simply refuse to flee.