Porktacular reading material
Just in time for his retirement, our beloved police chief Pat McKinley brought home a $100,000 federal earmark for his new body armor which he designed in a partnership with seasoned police contractor Safariland, a subsidiary of Europe’s largest military contractor. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez congratulated herself for rooting up the money for the high-priced vests as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act.
What could be wrong with this earmark? It’s nothing but free money for the City of Fullerton – an unconditional gift from the federal government, right?
But the earmark qualifies as official government pork according to government watchdogs.
Citizens Against Government Waste have identified 10,160 projects at a cost of $19.6 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2009 that symbolize the most egregious and blatant examples of pork. All of the items in the Congressional Pig Book Summary meet at least one of these criteria, but most satisfy at least two: Click here to read more.
with vests for cops? Go Loretta for bringing home the bacon.
I’m not a fan of McKinley or the Fullerton Police, but one surely can’t blame any chief for wanting to protect the men and woman that served him, by any means. One may want to debate the role of the federal money in flipping the bill, but certainly not the chief for getting what he can to protect his police force.
Steve, the post didn’t blame McKinley for trying to “protect the men and woman that served him” by any means. The vest is just an option for cops in lieu of a belt that carries things like their gun, belly club, mace, taser gun, flashlight, talkie walkie, etc. They always wear a bullet proof vest.
Surprise, surprise, surprise, there are several companies that already manufacture these same type of vest. Perhaps McKinley’s time spent on designing something that already exist would have been better spent on overseeing law enforcement issues that might have made Fullerton residents lives safer.
Did you ever wonder who issued all those live entertainment and dance permits to the several “restaurants” in downtown Fullerton that were operating illegally as night clubs?
I may have misunderstood your original point. So this is essentially a glorified fishing vest to hang cop trinkets from, not body armor? If that is the case then it does sound like b.s.