Alphecca

Tenn Cops to Start Enforcing Laws

Okay, that was a snarky lead. I'm GLAD that because of a Project Safe Neighborhoods grant, Nashville police are going after the gang-bangers. From the Tennessean:

In a joint news conference, Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas and Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville office of federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said agents from the two agencies will now meet weekly to target the most egregious gun cases and shooting suspects.

"I think that as we've watched this year develop, we're seeing young kids in the narcotics business shooting each other in less than fatal ways," Serpas said. "I think that represents that they are confident they can get away with it. They are doing it in a way to intimidate each other, and that causes the other side to retaliate."

[...]

Also, starting this Friday, Metro police will place a detective in each of the six police precincts who will focus strictly on gun-related crimes, Serpas said.

The federal prosecutions will be funded largely through a Project Safe Neighborhood grant, an effort by the U.S. Justice Department that allocated $220 million to combat gun-related violence in local jurisdictions. Since 2002, there have been 120 local cases prosecuted under the program, officials said.

I have long maintained that most police departments are reactive; all they can do is respond after the crime has been committed. That doesn't mean they should be short-changed the funds they need to operate, persue, and prosecute the mutants of this world.

Naturally, there is only so much a city can tax it's residents but when you consider some of the nonsense that money is spent on, it's up to the tax payers to demand that city budgets focus on what is important and to my mind, the police departments are VERY important.