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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Illegal Alien March Cost City of Phoenix 300k |
| 2006-04-16 |
| Phoenix officials spent at least $309,000 to ensure public safety during the immigration march Monday that drew more than 100,000 people to downtown Phoenix. That's about $3 per person.As a former City of Phoenix employee, I just wonder how many municipal workers the city could have hired with all this money....most departments are understaffed and have been for a while. "We invested the appropriate resources we believed were needed to provide for a safe and orderly event for the participants, the motorists and the general public," said David Ramirez, a city spokesman. The marchers rallied in support of There were no arrests or major incidents during the peaceful march that took participants from the state fairgrounds to the state Capitol, but police officers and firefighters were on standby. Which is a good thing, otherwise it would have cost even more. A bulk of the money, at least $256,124, covered overtime costs for public safety crews and support staff, including eight temporary workers who answered more than 360 calls to the city's traffic information line. Even the Suns and the Diamondbacks have to pay the costs for traffic control and police presence. But these guys are *special*. The city also paid about $25,000 for barricades to close streets throughout the day of the march. Again, another cost that is normally assessed on whoever is holding the event. "We had to keep traffic moving around the march, and keep people from parking in neighborhoods," said Mike Frisbie, a city traffic engineering supervisor. The cost of $3 per person was $3 too much for some residents. "Any other group or organization would have to pay for their barricades and for the police overtime," said Donna Neill, a community activist. "You can't take my tax dollar and use it when our community are in such need in other areas like parks or senior centers. That money is gone. It didn't produce anything tangible." Other costs related to the march: • About $22,000 to serve 6,000 meals to public safety crews from the city and outside police agencies working the event. Wonder how many calls for service were put off so that they could deal with this instead? Sure hope there weren't a lot of burglary or stolen vehicle reports that day.... • About $6,500 to print and distribute 30,000 fliers several days before the march to inform residents and businesses along the march route about the event and related street closures. Another way they saved money for the organizers and took it out of the taxpayers' pockets.... "It's our duty to provide public safety at every level," Assistant Fire Chief Bob Khan said. "And the city did that seamlessly." |
| Posted by:Desert Blondie |
| #3 We need Illegal Immigrants because Real Americans won't burn OLD Glory and march with bug Puppets. |
| Posted by: RD 2006-04-16 19:48 |
| #2 Sure hope there weren't a lot of burglary or stolen vehicle reports that day.... Would it be uncharitable on this Easter Sunday to wonder if incidents were down due to the usual suspects all being at the march? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-04-16 13:23 |
| #1 For my part, I heard several mumbled curses from working Mexican citizens about the demonstration. Just two generations living here and a lot of them want nothing to do with the recent arrivals. The ironic part is the political split of around 50/50 in AZ. It's almost identical to the overall State political split. Though conservative Mexican-Americans tend to be further to the right than most other conservatives. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-04-16 11:59 |