Cop says to invest in ammunition
...Officers are now talking about moving to other cities to find work, filing for bankruptcy in order to handle the pay cut, and retiring....Several officers and lieutenants are turning in equipment, filling out paperwork and getting out before that vote next Tuesday... A 25-year veteran of the force said, "The morale in the police department is the worst I've seem in my 25 years."...The veteran Toledo Police officer warned Toledoans need to know what's going on inside the downtown Safety Building. "If I'm an average citizen of Toledo, I definitely would be concerned," the unnamed officer said.All of these retirements, topped with 40 to 75 officers proposed to be cut will bring staffing levels on the streets to the lowest number in decades. Police officers FOX Toledo News spoke with expect to only have 200 officers patrolling the streets in the near future - a dangerous level for citizens' and officers' safety. (Note; City population is still 200k +, even now. Equals One cop per 1000 citizens. Nice, huh? - Caveman)
The layoffs would result in dismantling all units. It would also send all officers to road patrol, meaning school resource officers, the gang unit and over half of the detective unit would be gone.The 25-year police veteran said fugitives and felons are well aware of what's going on.
"The gang element and the criminal element are getting a little bolder because they know there's not enough officers out there," he said.
Chief Navarre met with officers Tuesday at roll call. FOX Toledo obtained notes taken at that meeting where Chief Navarre was quoted saying "I believe (the mayor) is at war with the unions and if blood gets spilled he doesn't care."
The print version censored it, but in the live interview the officer said, and I quote, "Tell people, buy guns. Invest in precious metals. Lead, gunpowder, brass." This is from a veteran cop. When was the last time you heard a cop advise a civilian to arm themselves? Other than a member of their own family I mean?
I am getting morbidly tired of watching SWAT teams raid the houses around here. Across the street twice in the last year. On the corner a couple of years ago. Across the street at the end of the block at least five times in the last three years. around the corner three times in the last two years. On the next block over, other side of the alley, at least seven or eight times for various houses. And this isn't even the roughest part of town anymore. It had the name of being the roughest part of town when I grew up here in the early 1960s, but not now.
Still, the gangs have tagged the garages on this block twice in the last two months. The first time they got busted and the cops forced them to re-paint the damage. This time they got away with it.
OLD SOUTH END - Gang activity in the Old South End is reaching dangerous levels, sources inside the Toledo police department told FOX Toledo News. Some officers said they haven't seen this much activity since the mid-80's.
I am going to start taking my shotgun out of the cabinet and sleeping with it next to the bed. I might even place a few pistols at strategic locations around the house. This is getting very old, very fast.
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