What bothers you more: city bureaucrats who give their kids sinecures, or the dozens of corpses piling up on the streets of Oakland? For Chron columnist Chip Johnson, it’s clearly the former; he’s just come out with a column denouncing the proposed parcel tax to finance the hiring of more than one hundred new cops. See, Oakland is so corrupt, and there’s so much fat lying around City Hall, that voters like Johnson are just sick of it. So despite the terrible crime epidemic, the horrific violence that everyone’s been screaming about ever since Dellums took office, actually paying for the new cops is asking too much. We’ve heard this line before from tax opponents: once Oakland actually bears down and cuts all the wasteful spending, we’re sure some money will be freed up to hire the cops we need. But don’t ask us to kick down any more cash, ’cause we really need that $113 a year to … what? Pay your kids’ oncology bills? Buy a Playstation 3, more likely. Look, anyone who thinks Oakland will get the police force it needs without paying for it is living in a fantasy world. And grumbling about waste at City Hall sure feels good, but venting your spleen won’t do anything but waste column inches. Grow up, Chip, and pay your taxes.
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