Can the president of one of Mesa's police unions handle a gun?
The answer is obviously yes, expect when it comes to talking with and about the residents of Mesa or the City.
Ryan Russell who is the president of one Mesa's two police unions, shouldn't be allowed to speak on behalf of the City of Mesa's police or at least he shouldn't be given a gun to carry on their behalf. Ryan's comments to the Mesa Tribune may just have cost him a couple of toes and the toes of a few other officers. Well maybe not literally.
Ryan, in his comments to the Meas Tribune, said that he was surprised that Mesa was ranked 7th as one of the safest cities to live in. He said that he is seeing just the opposite and that Mesa residents should be concerned with the direction the city's crimes are going.
Forbes Magazine by contrast ranked Mesa the 7th safest city in which to live. That is a pretty great accomplishment for Mesa. Mayor Scott Smith has worked hard to bring back respect to Mesa and comments like Ryan Russell's do nothing but to hurt Mesa's reputation. Reputations are hard to get back once they are damaged. I would think that Ryan would want to put the best possible spin on things in other to keep Mesa growing in the right direction.
Ryan may not be aware that an economic upturn in the economy means more money in the City Mesa's budget to hire additional police and to increase the salaries of officers on the job now.. Where does Ryan think the money came from to give back his officers the 2% pay increase that were taken a couple of years ago? If he doesn't know, let me remind him from the tax dollars generated by those coming to Mesa.
Now I don't think that Ryan is naive, but I may be wrong. So lets just take his comments for what it is, POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING. Ryan wants something, and he sees this as an opportunity to make something positive into a negative in order to get what he wants for those he represents.
If those you represent don't like the 2% pay increase, then they should allow you to continue to talk down on Mesa. On the other hand, if they like the increase and want to see future increases maybe they should find somebody else to speak for them.
Leave the politics out of this.
The head of a police union has one main job. To increase the amount of tax money spent on the police department. No matter how low the crime rate, how high the tax rate, or how many personnel are on the department, it's not enough. This is sadly the position of all police unions, and indeed all public employee unions. That's one of the reasons I left the FOP and the MPA during my 20 years on the Mesa PD. No MPA or FOP leader ever urged a reduction in spending, even if it could be done without reducing staffing levels.
ReplyDelete