Surprise! NPR Analysis Finds that Slashing of Newark Police Force Resulted in Crime Surge

[JPZenger]

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137518416/newark-budget-cuts-mean-less-police-presence

NPR filed Open Records Act requests to obtain the latest Newark crime data, which had not been publicly released. Surprise - the data shows that there has been a serious surge in crime in Newark since the police force was slashed. Much of the reduction resulted from Christie's cuts to state funding.

Christie's response? He just slashed state funding to major cities even further in the new budget. He eliminated a line item that Democratic legislators had added to the budget to deal with the problem.

[JPZenger]

1. Rachel Maddow last night talked about Christie's double cross

On last night's show, Rachel Maddow talked about how New Jersey Democratic legislators were recently conned by Christie. She said the Dems agreed to changes to take back some pension benefits for public employees, in return for the Governor agreeing to some additional funding to address their top concerns. For example, the Dems wanted additional funding to the hardest hit cities (such as Newaork and Camden) to help them deal with their police and fire cuts.

Then, after the budget was approved by both houses of the Legislature, Christie used a line item veto to strike the spending items that the Dems thought they had agreed to. She accused the NJ Dem legislators of allowing themselves to be used - they gave in, and got nothing in return.

[JPZenger]

2. 13 Shot in One Day in Newark - How's Those City Budget Cuts Working Out, Christie?

13 people were shot in one day in Newark yesterday, including one person who died.

[DWinNJ]

3. Christie cares

Only if they were registered republican