Sunday, June 09, 2024

Remember the Clinton "Free Cops!!" Giveaway?

There is no.  free.  lunch.

Back in 1993, Bill Clinton had a "free cops!!" program.  He gave Federal tax dollars to municipalities who would hire cops.  The program expired after only 2 years, but the cops didn't.

Now Chicago finds out what that "free money" really means.

    ...Last year set records for the number of overtime hours worked by Chicago Police officers – and that trend is continuing this year, with the summer just getting started.

    There are also additional needs this year with months of massive events on the schedule, notably including the Democratic National Convention in August.

    Between last year's 52nd annual Pride Parade, the NASCAR Cup Series race downtown, the four-day Lollapalooza Music Festival, and a year's worth of other commitments for Chicago Police, officers clocked in 4,151,294 hours of overtime in 2023, according to a CBS News Data Team analysis.

    This cost taxpayers nearly $300 million. ...

That's because those "free cops" began retiring in 2023, having hit age 55 with 30 years' service, combined with the hatred shown the cops by the Cook County DA and the Mayor(s) of Chicago during the last 10 years or so--which hatred had an impact on recruitment.

It's not quite that bad in Milwaukee.

Yet.

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