What do you wanna bet this guy would scream to high heaven if the city wanted to tax him an extra $82 a year to fund more patrolmen?
What do you wanna bet this guy would scream to high heaven if the city wanted to tax him an extra $82 a year to fund more patrolmen?
The problem is that all isn't equal. Krish no doubt knows, just as you do if you'd think about it, that there is no possibility of paying $82 in taxes to obtain that level of extra patrolling. The local government is dysfunctional, their cost structure bloated, the political process broken. Keep in mind, Oakland has some of the highest local taxes in America; in a very real sense Kirsh is already paying that $82 per household (and more besides) yet not getting the patrolling he wants. What would adding another $82 do? Would it fund 12 hours of patrolling, five days a week? If you know ANYTHING about the cost structure of modern police departments in general, or Oakland in particular, the notion is absurd. The city of Oakland is not capable of providing what Kirsh and his fellows want.
It's like looking at someone buying a second hand Acer laptop $200 off Craigslist, and muttering that you bet he would refuse to pay $300 for new Macbook Retina. He almost certainly would not refuse that, but we'll never know, because that deal is certainly not on offer.
Yes, people at some point might have griped about "an extra $82" in taxes, but they are way beyond that point now. OPD isn't patrolling the hills, property crimes are rarely followed up on, etc.
Snark all you want, but there are people with families living there that are at their wits end.
America's affordable housing policy is high crime and shit schools. There's nowhere to move to.
There are also extenuating circumstances- OPD is its own worst enemy.
No unions, no pensions, no politics, blah blah.