Posted on 03/02/2003 1:13:33 AM PST by Dont Mention the War
Publication date: 02/28/2003 "We already have a $350 million deficit. How are we going to pay for this?" City Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval said. "(President) Bush seems to be oblivious to the problems in the localities. I'm sure this problem is very widespread from Philadelphia to Denver to San Francisco, but I don't see a bailout plan for the cities." Deputy Police Chief of Operations Greg Suhr said a prolonged war and accompanying protests could bankrupt the police department's contingency funds. Besides the cost of public safety, the city controller's office estimates a war would cut $15 million to $25 million in current revenues from a budget already hundreds of millions in the red. P.J. Johnston, spokesman for Mayor Willie Brown, said even a simple peace march like the two recent antiwar demonstrations costs The City up to $120,000 a day. "Protests and peaceful demonstrations are an important part of civic participation, so it is appropriate that people gather in San Francisco, but The City is currently absorbing an enormous cost with no help from the federal government," Johnston said. Groups opposed to an attack on Iraq are planning massive displays of civil disobedience in San Francisco, ranging from blockading the entrances to public buildings to shutting down key intersections and blocking traffic with disabled vehicles. The group Direct Action to Stop the War is calling for crowds to gather downtown the morning after a U.S. attack on Iraq and shut The City down through nonviolent protest, an effort supported by other peace groups now focused on preventing a war. "On the day that they start dropping bombs, Powell and Market at 5 p.m. is going to be full of thousands and thousands of people who want direction," Maya Jones of the anti-war organization Not in Our Name told The Examiner. That protest, unlike the permitted events that have clogged downtown streets and plazas in the past month, will challenge police officers to respond quickly. Suhr said city officials have also been working with the courts and civil liberties groups on how to handle mass arrests. The Feb. 16 war protest in San Francisco, where a splinter group caused short-lived havoc in the Financial District, led to nearly 50 arrests and eight protesters held on felony charges. Demonstrators allegedly attacked a police horse and jumped onto a moving cable car. Suhr said the Police Department is mobilizing resources to quell the expected massive anti-war demonstrations. "We have contingency plans in place. We have a complement of officers who measure about 60 who will be brought in on 12-hour days in case of a U.S. attack on Iraq," Greg Suhr, deputy police chief of operation, told The Examiner. Sandoval suggested the National Guard could be brought in to assist city police. "I don't mean to be alarmist, but to the extent that we can use the National Guard, we should think about it," Sandoval said. "If the danger is really that high, I think the federal government and the governor's office have a responsibility to help local agencies." Spokespeople for various local and state agencies confirmed that plans call first for response by local officers, leading up to an area-wide call up of police and the California Highway Patrol and, if necessary, the National Guard. The California guard, which needs an order from the governor to go into action, last mobilized to handle civil disobedience in response to the Los Angeles race riots in 1992. CHP spokesman Tom Marshall said California, because of its high number of protests and natural disasters such as earthquakes, is used to handling such emergencies. "We have a lot of experience in planning, gearing up and reacting to these types of things," Marshall said. Sandoval has called for a public hearing on the costs and neighborhood impacts of a war. Mayor Brown is also lobbying the federal government for homeland security funding. Increased security costs have been in the tens of millions since Sept. 11, 2001, Johnston said. Sandoval, who voted with the majority of city supervisors to oppose an Iraq war without U.N. backing, said the war's impact on The City's finances makes it a local issue. "A lot of people say the Board of Supervisors has no business engaging in foreign policy, but when it affects our bottom line it is our business and every citizen in San Francisco should be concerned about it," Sandoval said. E-mail: ahampton@examiner.com
S.F. braces for financial hit from war, protestsBY ADRIEL HAMPTON
Of The Examiner Staff A war with Iraq and local antiwar demonstrations would do great damage to The City's already tenuous finances, city officials said.
Try charging the same hourly rates as motels for the use of public men's room stalls. Perhaps a quarter-per-minute timer over the "Glory Holes"?
I really shouldn't joke about this. It may be feasible.
Mass anarchy and civil disobedience is planned. Shutting down all traffic. Riots. I hope they burn the city.
Nothing will turn the people aginst them faster.
Of course, serfdom under King Willie Brown has nothing to do with your money woes, you idiot. It's all Bush's fault. Yep. SF can't pay for its little Traitors' Marches replete with drag queens, homosexuals of all varieties, and other miscreants........and it's Bush's fault.
I think I see your problem, SF. In the meantime, reap it.
That statement shows What the left is. They are nothing but a bunch of Lemmings.
They "want direction". They are unable to think for themselves.
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