The Kabuki Dance Begins: IMPD Understaffed Because Taxpayers Aren't Paying Enough Taxes

I predicted this several months ago. The mainstream media will team up with the Mayor's Office, public safety and community leaders to begin talking about how poorly understaffed IMPD is because of lack of funding. The meme will be that the reason for the understaffing is because Indianapolis taxpayers are paying too little in taxes to support public safety. Never mind that's the same tactic employed six years ago to pass a 65% local income tax increase solely for the purpose of funding public safety. Instead of asking where the money went, they'll pretend that 2007 tax increase never happened, along with the unloading of a half billion dollars in public safety pension debt state taxpayers took over in exchange for property tax relief that included an offsetting statewide increase in the sales tax. From this morning's Star:

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry told the crowd he wasn’t going to hold back when discussing public safety issues in Indianapolis.

Then he spoke bluntly.

“The police department is woefully understaffed,” said Curry, one of several speakers Thursday night at the Nora-Northside Community Council’s annual meeting, which discussed crime issues around the city. “Woefully understaffed.”

He and other top officials and attorneys highlighted the flaws and advantages of the public safety system in Indianapolis. The meeting, attended by more than 100 people, was at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church on the Far Northside.

Curry, after acknowledging the understaffing in the Indianapolis MetropolitanPolice Department, said, “We have to find a way to fund public safety.”

Robert Hill, a Marion County public defender, echoed those sentiments, saying a properly funded public safety system is essential. “It will not work if funding is out of whack,” he said.

Hill also highlighted the flaws in a different part of the system.

“Our jail is over­crowded,” he said. “Our jail is not big enough for some of our needs here.”

He said the city could save an “enormous amount” of money by using more community corrections programs, essentially places where non­violent offenders can be monitored outside jail.

Other speakers focused on the rising number of homicides in Marion County. Eighty people have been killed this year, 24 more than at this time last year.

There is one simple reason there is not enough funding for public safety: the corrupt politicians have diverted hundreds of millions in tax dollars to slush funds they use to finance the private development projects of the pay-to-play fat cats who essentially pay bribes to them to get public subsidies for their private development projects. Until we can find an honest prosecutor who starts sending corrupt politicians to prison for this corrupt practice, no level of taxation will be adequate. The more you are taxed, the more our government is plundered by these corrupt bastards. As far as I'm concerned, the media in this town is just as corrupt as the politicians because they refuse to expose the truth behind the lack of funding. Instead, they will blame you, arguing that property tax caps are to blame. Your property taxes are too low. That's a lie and they know it. Don't let them get by with it. If you don't take to the streets and start protesting and start getting in these corrupt bastards faces now, you will face higher taxes before year's end just like you did in 2007.

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