The headline from today’s Chronicle is pretty telling:
The Administration’s spinners go on to try to explain to us why the numbers aren’t really that bad, and even if they are that bad, it’s all the fault of Katrina.
The fact is, HPD’s manpower crisis was known when Mayor White came to office well before Katrina, and it wasn’t a priority at that time. Mayor White’s handpicked, bumbling police chief Harold Hurtt hasn’t exactly overcome the manpower limitations with *ahem* strong leadership. And the Katrina influx has certainly contributed to what was already a deteriorating public safety situation.
But hey, look on the bright side — we’ll soon have a new world-class downtown hobo destination to go with our world-class murder rate!
