Monday, August 2, 2010

The people of East St. Louis are screwed.

They're in Illinois, one of the states with the nastiest anti-gun attitudes of any state in the union. And the city council of East Saint Louis, on Illinois soil, just fired 19 police officers.

The city, when the firefighters' union and the police officers' union wouldn't accept a 20% pay cut to already abysmal pay, decided last week to simply fire some of those horrible, expensive safety officers.

Take a look at the ratio of fired city workers: out of 37 fired, there were 19 police officers, 11 firefighters, 4 public works employees (gas and water maybe?), and 3 administrators.

That's right: three administrators fired. Thirty-four useful, likely underpaid, city workers fired, but only three likely overpaid administrators.

And in one of the worst crime-ridden areas in the Midwest.

The people who live there have no chance to defend themselves from the violent criminals they live alongside, thanks to the viciously strict gun laws that said criminals refuse to abide by. Those people will have to deal with drug dealers, gangs, and arsonists with fewer cops and firefighters to help them pick up the pieces of their lives.

Maybe the city council needs to be fired, and their salaries folded back into the budget. I bet the city could hire twice the number of essential personnel they just fired.

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