TheAgitator.com
Obama, Dems Want $4 Billion for COPS, Byrne Grant Programs
Friday, January 16th, 2009President-Elect Obama’s stimulus package calls for $3 billion in new Byrne Grants, and $1 billion in COPS grants—both are federal block grant programs for local police departments. For some reason, Democrats seem to love these grants. The Bush administration and Republicans in Congress had begun phasing them out.
As I explained in a piece for Slate last October, studies have shown both programs to be ineffective at fighting crime. Worse, there’s good evidence that they actually cause harm. While designated for community policing efforts, COPS grants have actually been used by many departments to start or outfit SWAT teams, a point I explicitly made in July 2007 to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), when I testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime he chairs. Scott seemed surprised when I told him. But apparently, it didn’t affect him enough to prevent him from restarting the program.
Byrne Grants, meanwhile, are often tied directly to drug arrests, warping police department priorities by encouraging low-level drug busts to juke up department arrest statistics . . . so they can apply for more grants. We have Byrne grants to thank for the civil rights disasters in Tulia and Hearne, Texas, and for the continuing problem of out of control multijurisdictional drug task forces.
I guess the important thing is that individual congressmen can once again send out self-congratulatory press releases announcing the big pile of pork they’ve just procured for the local police department.
I think I’ going to vomit! Good thing I don’t have to pay taxes! (out of work) I can deny all responsibility for the insanity!
dems support this kind of stuff to make them appear tough on crime. reps already appear to be tough on crime, so they can “afford” to let them go.
“I guess the important thing is that individual congressmen can once again send out self-congratulatory press releases announcing the big pile of pork they’ve just procured for the local police department.”
That’s it in a nutshell. It also gives them a great comeback if they’re ever accused of being “soft on crime”. They don’t care about the consequences or how the money is used, unless they get a taste like Mayor Calvo.
What’s wrong with SWAT teams?
Radley, do you think there is some reason COPS grants are especially likely to be wasted, or is that just a surprising fact about what has happened once they were given out by the federal government? Either story is probably good enough reason to oppose them.
Whether these are good intentioned or not, block grants are unconstitutional for several reasons but the primary reason is that the expenditure is not for the debts, common Defence, and general Welfare of the united States of America. Congress cannot legally spend for the debts, common Defence, of general Welfare of individuals or states. The restriction is that the money must be spent only for the body-politic, the united States, which in the Constitution is differentiated from the People and the States numerous times.
Dominus providebit!
Meet the new government. Same as the old.
Wait. Are you saying that Washington seems to fund programs based more on how they sound rather than how effective they are? Because that implies that our government isn’t as well-meaning and effective as our elected representatives would have us believe. A lot of people are going to be pissed when that leaks out.
Personally, I think it will take something really serious before SWAT teams and military tactics will be called into question on a large scale. Something like a national convention of gifted preschoolers all getting burned into crispy-critters because of some trigger-happy brain-dead drug cop accidentally shoots a hole in a gas line while acting on a tip from an insider that suggests the toddlers may be operating a secret distribution network for Taliban heroine.
And even then, any reforms would only last as long as the public attention span (like maybe until the next episode of American Idol).
Oh, yeah. I forgot. The preschoolers would have to be white.
[...] So I was kind of joking with the title before you get angry at me. However, you should still read this link, lest you think either party doesn’t have massive room for [...]
My biggest concern over the “stimulus” package was how much would go to LEOs. No “hope” for us I guess.
FYI
Dateline on NBC tonight focuses on the college co-ed that was coerced into being a drug informant and was subsequently murdered. Spin or no spin?
@MacGregory
To paraphrase a Soulcoughing song “… spin like the cadillac was
overturning down a cliff on television.”
Guess that story will have to wait. Instead Dateline managed to string together an hour of the plane crash story that everyone has already seen a million times today.
If the conclusion makes no sense, check the premises.
Byrne grants are a proven civil-rights disaster.
The State knows this, yet it continues funding.
Therefore, the State must have a compelling interest in creating civil-rights disasters.
Why?
Could it be so that helpless individuals keep running to their daddy-god State for protection?
Why, this time they’ll get it right — by golly!
How anyone could enable this obsessive-compulsive exercise in sado-masochistic co-dependency is beyond my comprehension.
I read a while back, that these Byrne grants were being cut back. So why are they trying to bring them up again? Must be a jobs program for LEO’s. Sounds more like a “surge” for tyranny.Tough on crime…soft in the head.
The problem of currency devaluation courtesy of massive printing of paper Fed Reserve Notes to ‘empower’ the ‘bailout’ remains. The value of it is dropping as we breathe. Adding more to the National Debt will not magically create efficient, professional police forces…who’ve already demonstrated exactly how dangerously incompetent some are, courtesy of every report of a botched raid, ‘accidentally’ murdered child or adult or slaughtered pet, ruined home, etc.
The DrugWar gravy train must be hauled into review, and not some cursory brush-off of dust, and a quick once over. It needs to be examined from its’ earliest (and racist!) roots to today, especially its’ economic cost to the nation, particularly with regards to the present mess we ‘enjoy’ today. When performed in that light, it becomes immediately obvious that the DrugWar is not something that needs continued funding, like, oh, say, unemployment insurance?
Damn pols still haven’t figured it out that the champagne fountains and beer troughs have been shut off; it’s beans-and-rice time, for the vast majority of people, and that means Gub’mint, too. Throwing moolah at Byrne Grants and COPS is just asking for a public dragging-over-the-coals.
Let’s not too quick to judge the values of funding police initiatives. Community Policing is a valuable resource in motivating neighborhood residents to cooperate with police in reducing crime. Although it is not a cure-all, community policing can have a positive impact by establishing a volunteer police chaplain program (at little of no cost to the PD). Assigning volunteer police chaplains to specific police sectors where their respective congregations are located accomplishes three purposes. 1) Clergy are known in the community and are privy to issues in their specific neighborhood. 2) A PD has an additional and respected voice in neighborhoods. 3) Parental control of neighborhood youth is enhanced. PD chaplains riding with police officers send a message to the community that the faith community is a player in reducing crime and public nuisances. Ref: Stories of the Street: Images of the Human Condition. http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/StoriesOfTheStreet.html
Volunteer Police Chaplain Steve Best
[...] credit default swaps, and plenty of junk both parties are opposed to. We’ve already found a revival of the Byrne grants frequently abused in our drug [...]
[...] are these BYRNE grants and why do they matter to us? Radley Balko explains it quite well at The Agitator: Byrne Grants, meanwhile, are often tied directly to drug arrests, warping police department [...]
my government grants…
Your topic The Liberty Papers “Blog Archive ” 2008 Guide To Government Waste was interesting when I found it on Monday searching for my government grants…