The only people who really benefit from the attacks are the demonstrators, as it makes the demonstration impossible to ignore. The blocking of the media in Oakland makes it something the media will now cover, because they got stepped on.

The Albany police have been digging themselves out of a public relations hole that goes back decades, so they aren’t going to throw their progress away to please the politicians. It is impossible to police a city that hates you, as Oakland is finding out.

Boredom and bad weather are much better ways of dealing with crowds that force. From a budget standpoint, and I had to deal with the budget when I was in law enforcement, arresting people is expensive and time-consuming, so you don’t do it unless you have to. The overtime involved in maintaining patrols while officers go to court and sit around waiting to testify is a killer. Those election-year vice sweeps are absurdly expensive, and I stopped them by making them a separate budget line with the cost documented. Politicians don’t like it when they have to vote on items like that, and taxpayers sure as hell don’t.

NYC, Oakland, and the other ‘get tough’ jurisdictions’ better have a source to fund all the costs of this stupidity, because the issue will come up at election time, and the police chief in Albany just knocked the props out from under them.

Jams, the capitol area police departments are looking at their reduced budgets and know damn well they can’t afford to get involved in this mess, even if it wasn’t such a stupid idea in the first place.

Absolutely, Badtux, Cuomo the younger is a shill for the 1%.

– Badtux the Crony Capitalist Scryin’ Penguin