It turns out that deploying a militarized police response to protesters
is expensive.
The state has budgeted $3.455 million this year to pay expenses that any state agency incurred during an emergency declared by the governor, in addition to $4 million for emergency duties of the Missouri National Guard. [...]
St. Louis County so far has spent about $1 million in police overtime responding to Ferguson, Chief Operating Officer Garry Earls said. That amount includes about $100,000 a day for the first nine days after the shooting. [...]
“All this workforce out there had to be fed,” he said. “We used up all of our tear gas and pepper spray.”
You hear that, Ferguson residents? They finally ran out of tear gas and pepper spray! It's safe to be on the streets again, at least for 5-7 business days (I don't think you can overnight-mail tear gas, though I could be wrong.) Oh, and none of this takes into account the inevitable lawsuits, either.
St. Louis County is looking for the state to help defray their costs.
“If this was a storm, the FEMA folks would have shown up already,” he said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We are searching for the FEMA equivalent (regarding) civil unrest. We’re certainly going to ask the state for that.”
Of course it wasn't really civil unrest until you showed up and emptied the contents of the tear-gas cabinet into the neighborhood, but whatever. Incompetence, as we have often learned from our esteemed Congress and more than a few presidents, is often expensive.
In related news, I imagine the Ferguson Police Department will be looking to issue even more traffic tickets than usual this year. Gotta pay for all that tear gas somehow.
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