Worcester (MA) City Council approves police budget increase after weeks of demands from residents to divert dollars to the community

MassLive ^

[matt04]

The Worcester City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to approve the Fiscal 2021 budget, including a quarter-million dollar increase for the police department, despite weeks of demands from the residents to divert those funds back into the community.

Councilors approved the budget during a virtual meeting and after an hour of hearing residents call in, renewing pleas that the increase for the police budget instead be spent on things like the public schools, public health and transportation.

Worcester’s Fiscal 2021 budget has $163.2 million in city operations, 32% of which goes to the Worcester Police Department, the highest allocation of the budget. Included is a $254,320 increase for the police department, bringing the department’s budget to a total of $52,766,614.

“The city council ignored four hours of public comment and the voices of hundreds of Worcester residents who called and emailed expressing their opposition to this budget. We are disappointed but not surprised,” Defund WPD, a group working to advocate for the reallocation of police funds, wrote in a statement Tuesday night.

[matt04]

I gotta love the most vocal de-fund cpuncilcritter voted to increase funding in the end anyway. They are just looking for attention, not solutions.

[snarkytart]

The solution is for black men to behave themselves. To promote marriage within the black culture. Not even successful black people who made it out of the hood, are allowed to talk about black crime and black illegitimacy rate. they’re called Uncle Tom’s thrown under the bus. even ones who are liberal Democrat if they touch those subjects all hell rains down upon their heads. so basically you have a culture of people who don’t want anyone telling them that they have to do the right thing. And when the wrong thing gets them in jail, they don’t want to change themselves, they they want to change the system of policing and jail that way they don’t have to deal with facing consequences.

[KC_Lion]

For your interest.

[snarkytart]

Trust me I got into a discussion with 2 black men at work. both men have jobs, one was married with a family neither have ever been to jail. so you think they would be like yeah people need to accept responsibility. Nope. They were like “well the reason why that guy in Atlanta ran and fought is because jail is scary and he did want to go back to jail and the cops should have just let him go home and sleep it off.”
I was just thinking whatever.
If you’re so afraid to go back to jail why are you out drinking and driving knowing you’re on probation? If you’re so afraid of jail why are you doing anything that could put you back in the jail? This was a middle age man not some kid. There is never any personal responsibility in this community ...never.

[rigelkentaurus]

So activists wanted more money for the following, and what they really want/mean:

public education = communist indoctrination programs
public health = more abortions
public transportation = thug mobility systems so thugs can find wealthier hunting grounds

[GOPsterinMA]

Thank you, KC!