l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 USANews 讨论区 】
发信人: lczlcz (lcz), 信区: USANews
标 题: 是加税还是用枪保卫自己？俄勒冈人民选择了后者
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Dec 26 12:27:57 2013, 美东)
Citizens take law into own hands after cash-strapped Ore. county guts
sheriff's office
When budget woes reduced the sheriff's department in one rural Oregon county
to a bare-bones force, residents decided to take matters into their own
hands -- creating armed patrol groups in defiance of local officials.
Their decision has raised safety concerns with the county government, which
would prefer residents instead hike their own taxes to fund the hiring of
trained deputies. But despite the risks, the move stands as a unique, some
would say innovative, response to one of the country's most severe local
budget crunches.
The government in Josephine County, where nearly 70 percent of the land is
owned by the U.S. government, had long relied on federal timber subsidies to
pay the bills. When the feds terminated the funds, county officials
scrambled to pass a May 2012 tax levy to make up a nearly $7.5 million
budget shortfall.
However, the county's residents voted against the levy, and as a result the
Josephine County Sheriff’s Office was gutted. The major crimes unit closed,
dozens of prisoners were released from the county jail and the department
reduced operations to Monday-Friday, eight hours a day.
The Sheriff’s Office then issued a press release announcing their deputies
would only be responding to what they deemed “life-threatening situations.”
Ken Selig -- who was the longest-serving law enforcement officer in all
three local agencies when he was forced to retire from the department due to
cuts -- told FoxNews.com he found the sheriff’s declaration unacceptable.
And he felt compelled to guard his community’s vulnerable members.
“Who else is going to protect you when your government can't?” Selig said.
Selig and his friend Pete Scaglione formed the North Valley Community Watch,
a county-wide organization dedicated to helping citizens in non-life-
threatening situations, primarily property crimes. It is one of a handful of
community groups that have formed since the cuts. Without a robust Sheriff'
s Office, their mission is broader than the typical neighborhood watch group
.
Not only did the Sheriff's Office narrow its scope to "life-threatening"
situations, but it even encouraged people who felt unsafe to relocate. “...
the Sheriff's Office regretfully advises that, if you know you are in a
potentially volatile situation (for example, you are a protected person in a
restraining order that you believe the respondent may violate), you may
want to consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement
services,” the original release stated.
Selig's community watch group, looking to fill in the law enforcement cracks
, now meets once a month to discuss crime and teach its approximately 100
members about personal safety. The group also has a trained “response team,
” which consists of 12 people who will respond to the scene of a reported
non-life-threatening situation if called.
Though the “response team” members do carry legal firearms, Selig said the
team’s main goal is to provide a deterrent presence, and that none of them
have ever fired a shot. He said those involved in his group believe there
is no substitute for well-trained law enforcement, but they feel they have
no other choice but to protect their community.
“We believe responsible citizens doing responsible things make it hard for
criminals to do irresponsible things,” he said.
Selig believes politics are behind the county government’s decision to not
funnel what funds they do have toward law enforcement. He says the county
government seems to be pressuring the citizens to pass an additional tax
hike they cannot afford.
“The key is to get the funding somewhere where the local people can get the
services they need,” Selig said.
However, Josephine County Commissioner Keith Heck said residents of the
county that opposed the tax levy need to realize there is no fat to cut.
Heck said the county has tried to live within the bounds of its fiscal
realities, but citizens need to realize the options for paying for law
enforcement are limited. "The county coffers are at the bottom of the barrel
," he said.
Heck said though he supports neighborhood watch groups and citizens being
vigilant in their community, the rise of increasingly “aggressive”
community watch groups make him worried the situation could escalate to
violence. Watch groups have been under increasing scrutiny nationally ever
since the George Zimmerman case in Florida.
“These things seem good on the PR side but fail a little in the reality
side,” Heck said.
Heck said the only real solution is for the county citizens to approve more
funds.
“There is this little shimmer out there of some giant Santa that is going
to come and drop all this money on us because we are well-meaning folks,”
he said. “The sleigh is broken, the deer are dead, it’s not going to
happen. We have to figure out how we are going to solve this problem.” | f****t
发帖数: 15913 | 2 俄勒冈州人民骨子里是尚武的，可惜该州一直被左逼和无脑提倡环保的树蛙把持，支持
人民的选择。 |
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