Crime on the rise under Republicans...

[mndfl]

A strib article shows the costly price we all pay when Republicans gut effective programs that prevent crime.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/467/5745942.html

After plummeting crime rates in the 1990's under President Clinton, the Republican takeover of the White House and an unchecked Republican Congress has ushered in a crime comeback.

Why do Republicans and rising crime rates go hand-in-hand?

Read the column below by Minnetonka's Chief of Police for the answer...

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/13184987.htm

Posted on Thu, Nov. 17, 2005


Federal budget cuts will increase crime

JOY M. RIKALA

When you break the law, you should be punished. It's that simple.

But if we only address crime after it occurs, we're allowing people to be hurt. Police officers are responsible for protecting the public. And the best way to ensure we can do that is to insist that our leaders make the necessary investments to prevent crime.

Congress is considering budget bills with billions in cuts between now and 2010. These cuts would reduce vital investments in law enforcement, early education, child care assistance, after-school programs, prevention of child abuse and neglect, early screening and treatment, and foster care — investments that numerous studies have shown dramatically reduce future crime.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization of more than 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other police leaders and violence survivors — including 40 in Minnesota — recently released a report on the impact of the proposed budget cuts.

The report estimates that in 2010 the cuts would deny more than 7,300 at-risk kids in Minnesota and more than 570,000 across the country access to critical programs that help children get the right start in life so they never become criminals. This year alone, the proposed budget slashes a quarter of the COPS program, which puts cops on the beat, and more than a third of the Justice Assistance Grants for police, sheriffs and prosecutors.

Making a small investment in programs that provide discipline and adult supervision to at-risk kids goes a long way toward reducing crime. When the school bell rings at the end of the day, violent juvenile crime suddenly doubles and the prime time for juvenile crime begins. The proposed budget would knock almost 1,300 Minnesota students out of after-school programs that give at-risk kids the supervision they need between 3 and 6 p.m.

When we invest wisely in crime prevention, we save taxpayers' money. Children who participate in high quality preschool programs, like Head Start, learn values and conduct that give them the right start in life so they'll say no to crime when they grow up. The High/Scope Perry Preschool study found that high-quality preschool cut crime, plus welfare and other costs so much that it saved taxpayers more than $17 for every $1 invested — including $11 in crime savings — by the time the participants were 40. Yet Congress would deny roughly 1,400 at-risk Minnesota children the benefits of Head Start. Another 4,600 Minnesota children would be denied access to child care while their parents work.

Predicting which kids will become criminals doesn't take a crystal ball. Medicaid helps local clinics screen low-income kids in their early years to catch and treat serious behavioral problems before they spiral out of control. The House of Representatives proposes to slash this critical service.

The toughest job for any peace officer is arriving at a home where a child has been abused and neglected. Congress wants to abandon some of our most vulnerable children by limiting foster care support to certain relatives.

As a nation, we have to set priorities and make tough decisions about how to spend our tax dollars wisely. But I think we all can agree that preventing kids from becoming criminals is a higher national priority and a wiser use of money than the $70 billion in new tax cuts proposed in Congress. If we shortchange crime prevention and shut kids out of programs that give them the right start, we'll pay a lot more taxes later to put too many of them in jails.

The proposed budget cuts jeopardize our children's future and innocent lives. If Sens. Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton oppose cuts to programs that help steer at-risk kids away from crime, Minnesota's law enforcement leaders will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

Rikala is chief of police in Minnetonka and a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. For more information about Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, visit www.fightcrime.org.



© 2005 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.twincities.com

[mndfl]

1. Budget vote could be this week

Congress could pass a disaster of a budget plan THIS WEEK that would give another $100 billion in tax cuts for billioniares. The Congresional Republicans want to pay for half of the tax cut with service cuts. The other half will be added to the deficit. The half paid for comes out of anti-crime programs, out of higher education, and out of food stamps and health care for the poor.

Cheney said, "deficits don't matter. Reagan proved that."

Really? Cheney must have forgotten that both Bush I and Clinton raised taxes in order to balance the books, because both of them believed a balanced budget was in the economic and security interests of the nation. Those two presidents understood that the greatest military costs the greatest amount. And a bankrupt nation cannot afford a great military.