Posted on 02/15/2003 6:17:19 AM PST by at bay
And whose fault is that? We've been paying taxes for decades that were supposed to go for road maintenance and urban planning. As least that's what we were told. Where is the money really going? Folks need to be in jail for misappropriation of funds.
This is an excellent example of the Hegelian Dialectic. The gov't creates a problem, urban congestion, by failing to properly upgrade and maintain the roads. Then they create a reaction: angry drivers, road rage, etc.... Finally, they propose a solution which involves even more government.
Problem. Reaction. Solution.
A police chief from out of the area was appointed because he is a "Latino," passing up department veterans within the Salinas police force who know the city.
Any criticism of city politics is met with cries of racism against Hispanics. "Gun violence" is blamed on private ownership of firearms and not on Hispanic gang members where it belongs.
The Hispanic community continues to look the other way and refuses to cooperate with law enforcement. The issue of illegal immigration is also something nobody wants to talk about.
This whole area of California, from Santa Cruz to Monterey and Salinas, is dominated by Left wing wackos who pander to these and other Leftist interests. Big agribusiness interests give money to the likes of these for elections and while making billions in profits and getting millions in federal subsidies, they lobby for their meagerly paid farm workers' housing to be subsidized by taxpayers.
On top of all this is the Left wing ecofascists and duplicitous Left wing politicians who oppose any growth in housing availability. This keeps rental prices and property values very high. Add the desire for an ever increasing size of local government and all manner of tax increases, this county is a disaster.
The largest employer in this county is the county government itself (this does not include the local cities and special districts). I have heard getting a business contract with the county requires a pay off to county employees. Also, 501(c) tax-exempt corporations are given grants and when local issues such as a utility tax repeal is presented, local municipalities threaten to cut essential police and fire services instead of the non-profit leeches, and they campaign against such referendums with public dollars. This same type of political nepotism is applied to getting public service employment, appointments to local boards and is also suspect in operations of the local court system.
Blaming the police department for doing what they are directed to do by city hall doesn't solve the problem and is not fair to the police officers.
Of course, people in California (excluding myself and a few others) voted for this. Just look no further than the state budget "crisis," illegal immigration and the dismal state of education.
None of them were "perfect". Jefferson did far more good than bad.
Hell, he's only the author of our defining document, the Declaration of Independence.
He's far better than anyone we have today.
The good news is Friday night came and went with nary a roadblock to be found. The power of a free press!
And you believe what those Leftist snakes say?
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