'It's the only thing we've got': Central California cops aim to turn town's only library into police

[The Mouth]

Because screw libraries when the cops need to spend money.

https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/Police-department-wants-McFarland-library-17159602.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight


"It’s a quiet Friday afternoon in McFarland, California. Inside the Clara M. Jackson Library in the center of town, there’s a steady but calm hum of activity. Yet the overall mood is weighty, and the situation, beyond the smiles on its youngest patrons’ faces, seems dire.


The library, the town’s only one, may soon no longer be in this building. Why? Because McFarland’s police are attempting to take it over as their new headquarters. ...."

[niyad]

1. That story is actually from March. However, Kern County has just turnec

down the request of the police dept, and given the library added funds.

McFarland's police and city government have a history of corruption. And rigght now, the police chief is also the city manager, and upped the budget of the police dept to 51% of the town's budget.

Surely there is a spare bar, or church, or 7-11, or even his house, that could be used for their new quarters.

[quaint]

3. Spare bar sounds appropriate.

TY

[hunter]

2. Why do small towns like that even have police departments?

Too often they are up to no good.

The entire nation of New Zealand has one police department. I wonder what California would be like if we had the same.

Would our police be more effective or less effective, more corrupt or less corrupt, more racist or less racist, more violent or less violent, more fascist or less fascist than the police many areas of California now suffer?

I grew up in a small affluent city that was 99% white. It seemed the primary purpose of the police department was keeping it that way. They were notorious for DWBs and other forms of harassment.