El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles Trashes the Police

Eschewing the very notion that the city might be able to redirect some of the confiscatory taxation of its peones from wasteful and harmful projects to areas in which most Angelenos rely on city services, Alcalde Tony Vinaigrette has decreed that los peones shall pay for the addition of more LAPD storm troopers by means of a more-than-doubling of the monthly fee for trash collection. El Alcalde proposes to raise the monthly fee from $11 to $28 for single family dwellings, according to this story on LA's CBS News affiliate.

Where's Zorro when we need him?

It's true that LA has fewer cops per capita than any other large city, but the reasons for that are several, and tripling a tax won't do much to solve many of them. Cops don't like to work in LA. If they start in LA, they move to a different city as soon as they can get another job. Why? They get second-guessed about everything they do. Management won't back them. Too much racial politics. The law isn't always the law, or, some people are more equal than others.

El Alcalde faces a fight to get this fee (tax) increase through, and if he does, an awful campaign fight in the future.

The real question is, why can't the outrageous taxes Angelenos already pay cover the number one most important mandate cities have? The answer is an easy one. Los Angeles has fifteen City Council members, each of whom are paid nearly $150k a year and numerous perqs. Each and every one of them has a long list of really important projects that have to be funded, not to mention absolutely necessary junkets and fact finding trips to places like Hawaii and Paris each year. That, and all the Angelenos (legal or not) who really need help.

And, of course, there are the children. We must help the children. There's no shortage of plots and plans by any and all of the Los Angeles City Council members to spend millions and millions on the children. We'll tax the parents to death for the children.

One of the chief reasons the City of LA took over trash collection from private firms in the first place was because they said a uniform, city-wide trash collection system would be more efficient and cost less. Angelenos ought to have seen the fallacy when paying for the service was made mandatory. You can't take your own trash to the landfill, nor stay with the private firm. Well, sometimes you can, but you still have to pay the fee to the city.

Now, we see.... Let government take over any needed good or service from the private sector, and they'll invariably hold it over your head like a club. Instances of this are clear in government schools and in city water departments.

If Alcalde Vinaigrette has his way, trash collection by the city will certainly no longer be cheaper than if it were privately done.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California