Reported crime goes down as arrests go up in Lake Worth

Click title for link to PB Post article.  An excerpt:

"The number of major crimes reported in Lake Worth dropped more than 14 percent during the first half of this year following a similar drop in the first half of 2009 a sign that the decision to merge the city’s police department with the sheriff’s office in the fall of 2008 is working, according to some sheriff’s officials and residents.
...and...
Despite his success in Lake Worth, Silva worries about the District 14 budget in a city where the taxable value of property has plummeted during past three years and the sheriff’s contract represents nearly half of the proposed $28.7 million general fund budget.

The sheriff’s office increased its tab by $415,544 this year under its 10-year contract with the city. For the upcoming budget year, it has proposed cutting the District 14 budget by $1.2 million, to $13.2 million."

It's interesting then to ask what would the property value decrease citywide - the largest decrease over the last three years of any Palm Beach County municipality - if we had not gone with the protection offered by the Palm Beach Sheriff Office?  One myth put forward by those that were against the merger is that the decision to go with the sheriff's department meant spending more money in each successive budget year - but that would have been true with the city's own police department as well.  This is where the word "effectiveness" comes into play.  If you do not get the value of a service you pay for, it is the same as pouring that money down the drain.  If you don't see the result from it you are only throwing money at the problem and creating waste in the process.

If you are a proponent of anarchism and Downward Mobility, isn't this a tool used to further your ultimate goal of unraveling systems of law and order?  Isn't it your mission to make people who hold values of like the enforcement of laws and public safety uncomfortable enough so that they eventually move out of the city to  make way for new people that may not find safe streets and efficient public services a priority?  At that point, you can start campaigning for what you really believe and publicly say that you are for the dismantling of municipal government in the city of Lake Worth - along with flushing away the vestiges of whatever qualifies as "middle class" in the city.

You still won't hear the "truth" coming out of the incumbents' mouths this election season - they will tell those that vote what they want to hear, create bogey-men where none exist and continue to prop up their mythologies that paint a reality that is false - but one that gets people to the polls to vote for "their" candidates.

This is the real agenda of the incumbents in the election this November - and we have seen this scenario play itself out as this majority, created by a well-oiled political machine, claimed the power in Lake Worth.  Well, they may be good at getting "their people" elected, but they are a disaster when it comes to running a local government.

I am moving forward some older posts as a reminder of what has taken place under this regime and what they hold as their true beliefs - things you won't hear coming from them on the campaign trail or their slick campaign materials.

Remember this in November - elect those that are not currently on the dais.