Policing the City of Manteca

The same citizen who asked about dogs, in the previous post, also asked about reinstating law enforcement personnel.

4. What are you going to do to bring back the numerous Manteca police officers that were laid off?

My answer was probably not the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" answer sought by most people. This person, however, had already demonstrated the ability to lay out a series of thoughtful questions, and Yes or No decisions without rationale are not acceptable to thinking people.

Fourth, the policing function of a city government is the city's primary task. [Use of force is the power delegated by all individuals to a civic body (city, state, country) in an exclusive, comprehensive social contract for the protection of all individuals' health and safety. Apart from martial force, civilian use of protective force is the definition of "civilized."] The people cannot outsource this "use of force" and the people cannot use force individually except for very limited circumstances of self-defense. The [main] policing functions are: law enforcement, code enforcement, animal control, fire protection and building safety. Policing must take priority over any and all other expenditures of the city.

Every general fund program, including administration and support, as well as the enterprise and debt service funds for infrastructure, will be closely examined for cuts, closure, or true transfer to private enterprise. Staffing will shrink, labor contracts will be restricted to very short terms, and pay and benefits will be brought into line with the private sector. Revenues will increase along with the general economy (the same theory as RDA increment taxes), as long as the city does not "bribe" big businesses to locate here with tax offsets, and as long as the city does not strangle small businesses with taxes, fees, and undue regulations and mandates. Government is supposed to be a servant, not a master.

The policing powers that ONLY the city can wield must be maintained and controlled by the city administration, not by public sector unions, or votes of individual officers, or failure by civic leaders. When government goes beyond serving the needs of the general public and serves, instead, only the whims of the influential, or the profits of the monied, or the demands of entrenched special interests, it then becomes a weapon wielded by a corrupted few to extort and control the many.