NBC– Oakland‘s police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.

Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.

Some 80 officers were to be let go at midnight last night if a last-minute deal was not reached.  That’s about ten percent of the work force.

“I came here to build an organization, not downsize one,” said Batts, who was given the top job in October.

That deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. Tuesday. 

Here’s a partial list:

burglary

theft

embezzlement

grand theft

identity theft

false information to peace officer

required to register as sex or arson offender

dump waste or offensive matter

discard appliance with lock

loud music

possess forged notes

pass fictitious check

obtain money by false voucher

fraudulent use of access cards

stolen license plate

embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)

extortion

attempted extortion

false personification of other

injure telephone/ power line

interfere with power line

unauthorized cable tv connection

vandalism

administer/expose poison to another’s

Negotiations are going on at Oakland City Hall in the mayor’s office. 

Batts said the 80 officers slated to be laid off – mostly new  officers – are “pretty sad and pretty depressed,” and those feelings are  shared by the Police Department as a whole.

The Oakland City Council voted June 25 to eliminate the positions to help close the city’s $32.5 million funding gap.  According to the city of Oakland, each of the 776 police officers currently employed at OPD costs around $188,000 per year. Most of the officers who will be affected by the layoffs were on the streets of Oakland when Johannes Mehserle’s involuntary manslaughter conviction caused riots last Thursday.

The sticking point in negotiations appears to be job security. The city council asked OPD officers to pay nine percent of their salary toward their pensions, which would save the city about $7.8 million toward a multi-million dollar deficit. The police union agreed, as long as the city could promise no layoffs for three years. No dice, says city council president Jane Brunner.

“We wish we could offer them a three-year no layoff protection we just can’t financially. It would be irresponsible of us,” Brunner said. The city agreed to a one-year moratorium on layoffs, but it is not enough for the union.

The problem is money.  In the last five years, the police budget — along with the fire department budget — have amount to 75 percent of the general fund. After years of largely sparing those departments the budget ax, now it appears there are few other places to cut.

These are the last hours of negotiation and Brunner is hopeful that the city and police will find some sort middle ground.

“It’s been very good conversation and not a whole lot of grandstanding.” Brunner said. “There’s actually real conversations. Each side understands the problem,” she said.

© COPYRIGHT NBC, 2010

SEATTLE TIMES– The street below Danny Chen’s window in lower Manhattan has changed over the last decade from a bustling four-lane thoroughfare to an empty road lined with police barricades.

To get home each day, Chen has to present his ID at a police checkpoint. When the officer lowers the metal gate into the ground to let him in, he drives through as quickly as he can. More than once, the barricade has risen too soon, lifting his wife’s minivan into the air.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the New York Police Department barricaded off its headquarters on Park Row. About 2,000 residents in two apartment complexes found themselves living inside a security zone.

Nine years later, they still are. Many vehicles, including commercial traffic, are forbidden on the street, which used to be a key link between the Financial District and Chinatown. “This used to be a bustling area,” said Chen, a 52-year-old software engineer. “Now, it’s ghost-townish.”

In big cities across the country, security planters, metal gates and the concrete slabs called Jersey barriers have sprung up near government buildings. Washington, D.C., is littered with bollards. Nearly half of Los Angeles’ financial district is now partially restricted, according to a study at the University of Colorado Denver. Roads across dams have been closed to traffic for security concerns.

“I don’t want us to lose a way of life that we’ve had, but sometimes we have to consider security, too,” said Pace University Professor Joe Ryan, whose daily commute has been rerouted because of a road closure over the Kensico Dam in Valhalla.

The restrictions are especially noticeable to those sharing a backyard with the NYPD. Park Row residents say ambulance response times have risen and traffic has become bottlenecked since they began living behind barricades.

Read full article about Post 9/11 Checkpoints.

© SEATTLE TIMES 2010

EYEWASH STATION – After 9/11, the fear of another attack on U.S. soil cleanly supplanted the fear of having one’s penis chopped off by a vengeful lover in the pantheon of irrational American fears. While we’re constantly being told that another attack is imminent and that radical Islamic fundamentalists are two steps away from establishing a caliphate in Branson, Missouri, just how close are they? How do the odds of dying in a terrorist attack stack up against the odds of dying in other unfortunate situations? Well, let’s take a look.

The following ratios were compiled using data from 2004 National Safety Council (NSC) Estimates, a report based on data from The National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 2003 mortality data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) was used.

You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane

You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist