Dallas police cut extra protection at George W. Bush's home

[sabra]

Source: The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Police Department has cut back on some of the additional protection that the department provided around the Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush.

In addition to the usual Secret Service protection, Dallas until last week had stationed one on-duty tactical officer per eight-hour shift on the street outside the president’s home. The estimated cost of that service was $300,000 for about a year, according to police officials who asked that they not be named.

“We just had to cut it,” said one police official, who agreed to speak on the condition on anonymity. “We’re about to lay off people.”

Police officials said that they had been already gradually reducing extra security provided for the former president even before the city’s fiscal crunch. The cuts to the president’s security detail were first reported by KTVT-TV on Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/070809dnmetbushprotection.1e58ce80.html

[Warpy]

1. Now he'll have to hire a bunch of Blackwater goons

to pick all the shoes up off his lawn every morning.

I have to love stuff like that.

[Crowman1979]

37. It would be ironic if one of them goes into a roid rage and...

...well let's just say you reap what you sow.

[Egnever]

2. I am glad they cut it but how does it cost 300k for one person?

[alsame]

4. I think it's 3 people, each doing one 8 hour shift. nt

[Egnever]

6. Ah yes that makes much more sense

Thats what I get for not thinking it through before posting.

[Downwinder]

10. Plus without Single Payer Insurance the City has to cover Health Care costs. n/t

[TankLV]

31. So cops make ONE HUNDRED THOU a year?!!!

That's fucking TOO MUCH!!!

Up to 60-70 thousand, but not a hundred...

[havocmom]

34. Don't leave out other parts of the equation: DPD has to cover for the cops taken off other duty

If covering bush's worthless ass takes cops off other necessary duties, perhaps they had to use more man-hours via hiring or overtime to do the real work the department has to do. It's not like police departments have a cabinet with spare officers they can pull out and put into service.

edited to add: payroll is not the only cost of having employees either. There are payroll taxes to be paid and benefits to be provided. ALL employees cost more that what their actual salary/wages amount to.

[Oak2004]

11. One per eight hour shift = 4 or 5 guys/week

I like that the Bush Depression is going to bite its overseer, albeit in a small way for a member of the nonproductive rich.

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. 24 hr coverage @ $35/hr = $306,000/yr. nt

$35/hr is pretty damn good pay. Maybe that included the amount they have to pay someone else to do real police work at the same time - 1 as Bushguard, and 1 to do Bushguard's job as a policeman.

[POAS]

27. Your not considering costs other than salary.

Salary plus benefits is certainly the major part of those cost estimates but there is also the cost of the vehicle in terms of maintenance and fuel.

Also, an 8 hour shift is actually longer than 8 hours for each officer involved. They have travel time to and from the detail plus time needed to write and file shift and/or incident reports.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. He created the mess we're all in. It's only fair he should have to pay for his extra protection

Not that I expect it will hurt his pocketbook all that much.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Starve the Beast

Apply 'conservative' republion economic principles to xCommander AWOL Bush's lair and the protection thereof. He is most deserving...

[Beetwasher]

7. He Doesn't Really Need Any Protection Anymore Anyway

Nobody wants to hurt him, we all just want to pretend he never existed in the first place.

[FLyellowdog]

12. My thoughts exactly. "W" who?

[Chulanowa]

15. Well, there's always the flaming bags of poo

And this is a guy who nearly ended his term on a rold gold, so you can't be too careful.

[formercia]

8. The SWAT team just inflates his ego.

Like he's still 'important.'

[havocmom]

35. BINGO! And after the shambles he left the economy in, his ego is a low priority

We can't do the necessary stuff, we sure as hell cannot expect Dallas to pay for the trappings of the idiot's delusions.

[opihimoimoi]

9. We should pay for the efforts to keep him alive and well...his words of Wisdom is beyond COMPARE

WE NEED HIM TO SAVE THE PLANET AND HUMANITY FOR OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN HERE AND ABROAD...

HE IS THE MAN OF DESTINY

Bush was sent by GOD to solve our shit....

He is Americas HERO....

Was.....

Now a faded POS left on the lawn,

he goes to small town "gigs"

and mouths off Cheney shit

or Rush Shit

come, we go surfing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nS_aR8XX_U

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Awesome video. I feel much cooler already, thanks.

[spin]

13. Bush will have secret service protection for ten years...

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush’s “after-life,” as Laura Bush calls the post-presidency, is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, Secret Service protection, a travel budget, medical coverage and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers’ expense.

However, Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection.

“He’ll be the first one to receive it for 10 years,” said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal protection for only 10 years.
http://suzieqq.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/bush-will-be-first-ex-president-to-get-limit-on-secret-service-protection/

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. !!!

:grr:

[HopeHoops]

16. The fucker can pay for it HIMSELF!

Geeze, why doesn't he just get a bunker like Cheney?

[Dappleganger]

17. Yes he should.

[Vidar]

18. Good.

[rainbow4321]

19. My family and I drove around the neighborhood

Monday night. Sis was in town and wanted to see where idiot had relocated.
There were 3 different cop cars circling the surrounding neighborhood. Literally everytime we turned a corner there was another one. I made the comment to her that apparently the entire DPD force guards that small area in Dallas and the rest of the city is SOL.
They may say that they only had one cop there at a time (one for every eight hour shift) but they are full of it. Only one may have been sitting right at the cul de sac but local tax dollars for the DPD sure seem to be concentrated within a block or two from his house judging by the multiple cop cars we saw.

We had driven around the side streets, not the main roads, so it's not like were cruising the busy roads.

[asjr]

20. If we have to pay for his protection

I would much rather pay for his lessons in a karate school. Let him do some work on his own.

[Jokerman]

22. What? This is an OUTRAGE!

I'm genuinely concerned for his safety.

In fact, I think we need to lock him up in tiny, maximum-security cell for the rest of his life just to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to him.

[damntexdem]

23. Oh too bad -- there goes my plan to resettle Gitmo detainees there.

;-)

[DFW]

24. He can't hurt us now, but he can cause traffic jams on Preston

I'll be going home soon for a few days, and I sure as hell don't have time to waste just because Georgie wants to go shopping for a tie in Highland Park Village.

Besides, what he needs now isn't bodyguards but defense lawyers.

[Politicalboi]

26. Well he would be safer

In a federal penitentiary. It would be for his own good. And it would ease my mind knowing he's safe in jail.

[JayMusgrove]

33. Yes, I agree, best and safest place in the world for him is

in a maximum security federal prison, or maybe even one in northern Canada!!!

Knowing how he likes his Texas summers in that god-forsaken town ... I suggest we just pay Canada a few tens of thousands a year to house him in a Canadian Max Security poorly heated facility on Hudson Bay.

See how well his cajones survive those Canada winters.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

28. Wouldn't it be a bitch if he was killed due to his tax cuts for the wealthy and subsequent federal..

...funding cuts.

[LiberalFighter]

29. It should be Secret Service or DPD not both providing protection.

I would be all for just the state of Texas providing and paying for the protection and leaving Secret Service out of it.

But, Congress legislated the protection to be performed by the Secret Service.

I question using local police department in addition to Secret Service for an extended period of time. It could lead to security being breached enough that someone could get Bush.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. and people are bitchin about paying for MJ's funeral.. nt

[Betty]

32. that piece of shit is loaded

he could pay for police overtime and not even notice the cost.

[sofa king]

36. Why does he need protection by the local cops, anyway?

He has a secret service detail and lives in a whites-only gated community, surrounded by Dallas, surrounded by Texas, which is filled with a higher-than-normal population of standard-bearers who will lay down their lives at Bush's command.

Most Americans, like me, who want to see him burning in Hell have no interest in sending him there themselves. And the foreigners who want to do him harm are kept at bay by several trillion dollars' worth of Homeland Security and foreign wars of Gov. Bush's own creation, built to his specifications.

If that system doesn't work, Governor Bush ought to be the first to find out about it, shouldn't he?