5 Penn. towns disbanding police forces to bust union
Source: Teamster Nation
The War on Workers rages across five Pennsylvania towns that disbanded their union police forces. Now they rely solely on state police.
The Evening Sun reported on Oct. 13 that Hamiltonban Township would not renew its contract with its lone police officer, who had joined Teamsters local 776.
Three days later, the Newport Borough Council voted 3-2 to ignore the police union contract and immediately dissolve the police department. Minutes later, the two police officers were told to get their personal belongings out of the police station. A constable stood by as a locksmith changed the building's locks. One councilor resigned in protest.
The two Newport Borough police officers are also represented by Teamsters Local 776. Said Secretary-Treasurer Mario Garafolo:
Everyone was blindsided. The residents are in an uproar. What was done was outrageous and the Teamsters are standing behind our members and the residents.
What is happening here is happening in other places. It’s a domino effect.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2012/10/5-penn-towns-disbanding-police-forces.html
A big protest for the tiny town of Newport
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xchrom
(108,903 posts)
donnasgirl
(656 posts)Is a good one,when the tax payers figure out it will cost them more in the long run only then will there be something done,but this is nothing new it's been happening in NY for years now.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)I'm in Western PA, we have a solid Union presence and history. These people out where this is happening is old coal country and they still think the Molly Maguires was a terrorist organization. They also take their lead from state government, and who controls the state right now politically....the repugs.
I'm so tired of the State Police having to patrol these areas, when it should be local police doing the work. When I taught in Baltimore, one of my students wanted to be a State Police Officer, but not necessarily in Maryland. He did his research on adjacent states and their qualifications on becoming a Trooper. He said to me one day, that he found that a lot of PA State Police were killed in the line of duty. I told him the reason was because they had to do "Police" work in small towns and counties, unlike Maryland where their main job was "Highway'' patrolling.
Also I remember quite often what James Carville said about PA "PA is 3 states, Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama right down the center."
smiley
(1,432 posts)Way up in the Northern tier above Scranton.
We used to call it Pennsyltucky. A whole lotta rural area up there and not a lot of local police.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)GINORMOUS crime wave that is coming. Idiots.
Sadiedog
(353 posts)Well hope this so backfires on these councilman! Sounds like as if it is.
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)Advertising that 5 towns are without police protection is just a smart friggin' thing to do. Stretching the limits of state patrols? They'll love that.
Hey, next they need to disband the fire department. What could possibly go wrong? Paramedics and firefighters are overrated.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9245518
That's exactly where this is going, no doubt about it.
Libertarian 101:
Libertarians believe that taxes should be abolished along with all the programs and departments that taxes fund. Libertarians don’t believe in Medicare. Libertarians don’t believe in Social Security. Libertarians don’t believe that there should be fire departments, police departments, public transportation, grants for education, unemployment, disability, food stamps, and every other type of government system and assistance that you can think of.
Libertarians wish to eliminate taxes in order to eliminate all of the above programs and more. Libertarians believe that without these taxes, individuals will have more money in their pockets and will be able to afford all of these things. If someone is unable to provide themselves or their family with school, health care, or food, people need to rely on family members, church, or a private charity.
Libertarians believe that government’s role in the market should be to protect property owner’s rights. There should be no FDA, equal employment opportunities, unions, minimum wage, payroll taxes, safe food handling requirements, consumer protections, regulations that protect against financial conflicts of interest and fraud, and business licenses.
Libertarians believe that business owners should have the right to deny entry to minorities and/or women and/or people with disabilities, if that is how business owners wish to run their businesses.
http://deni-edwards.hubpages.com/hub/Defining-a-Libertarian-Ron-Pauls-Political-Platform
Wait Wut
(8,492 posts)Sick human beings in this world. I still remember some of the comments on some RW sites. I try so hard not to wish bad things upon people, but it isn't always easy.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)
progressivebydesign
(19,458 posts)..the crime is that Americans have come to accept that American workers should be making 1990 wages, with no benefits, and no pensions.
The Unions are not the problem. The fact that people can make a wage that could allow you to buy a modest home, a car, send your kids to a State college, and maybe even have one parent home with the little ones, should still be the NORM in America. It used to be. It used to be that those union jobs created the Middle Class, they supported communities, and gave people a path to the American Dream.
Now, the union-busters and haters, want everyone to work for $10.00 an hour with no benefits, so that people like Romney and the Koch Bros and Adelson, can make even more persona wealth. THAT is the crime here... that too many Americans believe that it's somehow wrong for Americans to have the American Dream.
Javaman
(65,002 posts)
DonRedwood
(4,359 posts)this is a strategic chess game and these are thought-out moves to kill the unions.
First they divided the unions (teachers get cuts but police and firemen don't) then they mercilessly attack the teachers while the firemen and police stay out of it. Now the teachers are whipped down a few notches and now they are going after the police. Each union is going to be attacked one after the other until the workers fight back or the unions lose.
woo hoo.
warrior1
(12,325 posts)and hired the police back with full intact benefits.
glinda
(14,807 posts)TeamPooka
(25,577 posts)Note: I will NOT be robbing any banks nor am I encouraging anyone to do so.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)
drm604
(16,230 posts)
Tree-Hugger
(3,379 posts)Everyone has had made great comments. I'd also like to add that Governor Tom Corbett is a fuckstick. Yeah, the article doesn't mention him, but I just wanted the rest of the world to know about our Governor.
Zeteticus
(23 posts)the county Sheriff is responsible for patrolling city and township areas without a town police department. Maybe PA doesn't have county Sheriff or deputies.
In MN, State Police jurisdiction is the highway system.
Dumping local cops because they are union is stupid, however, there are cities in MN that are either not a 24 hour operation or are combining with other departments to save (you guessed it) tax dollars.
Declining law enforcement personnel is the product of a number of policies, a few of which are the lack of funds, the second is the myth that the war on drugs is winnable.
Just sayin....
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Sheriff's traditionally did not do patrols, that was either NOT done, or done by local Police.
The reason Sheriff's duties was NOT extended to include patrolling can be related to the 1892 Homestead Strike. In that Strike the Sheriff served papers on the Union and served papers on the Steel Company but that was it. When the Steel Company brought in the Pinkertons, the Pinkertons asked the Sheriff to swear them in as deputies. After the Battle of Homestead, the debate was did the strikers fire on Sheriff Deputies when they fired on the Pinkertons or did they not, if the Pinkerstons had NOT been sworn in? The Sheriff testified he had NEVER sworn in the Pinkertons, the Pinkertons said yes the Sheriff has sworn them in. The case ended on that statement, the Court ruling it could NOT determine if the Pinkertons had been sworn in or not, thus no evidence that the strikers had fired on Sheriff's deputies. The State response to this was to pass a law that no Police officer or Sheriff Deputy could be sworn in unless he had been a resident of Pennsylvania for at least one year.
11 years later, the State formed the State Police, to supplement the existing Coal and Iron Police. The Coal and Iron Police were Police officers, given police power by the State but paid by private coal companies and Steel companies. The Coal and Iron Police started to be formed right after the Civil War. The Coal and Iron Police have been called the really only true America Terrorist organization. They were nothing but thugs (and calling them thugs, is insulting thugs). By 1900 the Reputation of the Coal and Iron Police was so bad, that the Governor at that time decided he would NOT permit any new Coal and Iron Police being made, veto those that the State Legislature had passed and asked for the creation of a State Police Force to supplant the Coal and Iron Police. The State Police were formed to be a State Paid Complementary police force to the Coal and Iron police. It was an attempt to have something an little less brutal to Strikers. In this the State failed, they turned out to be as bad as the Coal and Iron Police, Strikers had a habit of calling them Cossacks, for they rode horse and were as mean to strikers as any Cossack was to any foe.
In 1923, Pennsylvania formed a Highway Patrol, which like most other State's State Police Departments, patrol highways only. These were formed by Governor Pinchot, the second of only two, two term Governors under the State Constitution of 1874 (the 1874 Constitution prevented a Governor from succeeding himself, that was removed with the adoption of the 1968 Constitution, the only other two term Governor from 1874 to 1970 had been the only Demoicartic Governor between 1861 and 1935). Pinchot was Governor 1923-1927, and 1931 to 1935.
In the 1931, Gifford Pinchot, as Governor managed to abolish the Coal And Iron Police. For that single act many people view him as the best Governor Pennsylvania ever had and this is the man the created the Federal Forest Service, expanded the National Park under Theodore Roosevelt and expanded Pennsylvania own State forest while he was governor). During the late 1930s, under the first Democratic Governor Pennsylvania had had since the 1890s, the Highway Patrol was merged with the State Police to form the Pa Motor Police, which adopted the name State Police in 1947.
As you can see the State Police was an Anti-Striker (anti-union) organization from day one. The huge input of the PA Highway patrol reduced that emphasis in the 1930s, but one of the reason the name State Police was NOT adopted in the 1930s was that it had such a bad reputation among working class people by that time.
We have to remember since Pennsylvania had a huge RURAL Industrial base at that time (1900-1930) for the Coal and coke production was in rural areas, to keep the miners in line the Police were given the power of the Coal And Iron Police to patrol these closed mining towns and Coal Patches (Small towns with housing for miners set by the mine) as they were called. The actions of the State Police followed the actions of the Coal and Iron Police and that gave them a similar reputation.
It is for this reason, to keep miners in line, that the PA State Police was given the "duty" to patrol rural areas, where no local police patrolled. It is a duty they State Police have never given up even after most State Police Officers became in effect Highway Patrolmen.
The actions of the Allegheny County Sheriff's department in the Homestead Strike (and his predecessor actions during the General Strike of 1877) was NOT liked by coal and iron mine owners NOR the Iron and Steel mills owners. In both situations the elected Sheriff decided NOT to send out his deputies to put down the Strikers, an act that won him re-election. On the other hand it meant the State was NOT going to give the Sheriff the power to police strikers, for he was to neutral when Anti-Strikers attitude was desired.
Thus between the General Strike of 1877, the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the various coal strikes at the same time period, and the refusal by the Allegheny County Sheriff to have his deputies to act as strike breakers, the State was NOT about to expand the power of the Sheriff, thus when it was determined a police department was needed above the local level the State legislature opt for a State Police force. Thus Pennsylvania's Sheriff''s to this day do NOT do patrols and just serve as agents of the County Courts.