On Tuesday, October 9, 2012 9:52:48 PM UTC-7, Mike Vandeman wrote:
To the Editor:



The Oakland Police Department is being threatened with being put

under court control ("receivership"), due to its history of abusive

behavior. But police work is dangerous! I can easily understand why a

policeman would sometimes, in an atmosphere of fear, make a bad

decision.



But maybe there is another solution! Where does violence come from?

Doesn't most of it revolve around money? Let's assume that it does.

There are two possible solutions to the money problem: (1) get more

or (2) spend less. There are plenty of people working on the former.

Let's look at the latter.



There are many simple ways that homeowners can reduce their expenses:

(1) convert incandescent (old-fashioned) light bulbs to compact

fluorescents; the latter use far less electricity, as well as lasting

much longer; (2) insulate your home, reducing heating costs in the

winter and cooling costs in the summer; the gas company and the

government will often subsidize this; (3) put all consumers of

"vampire power" (appliances that consume electricity even when they

are allegedly "off": TV, stereo, microwave, etc.) on switches or

power strips, so they can be turned completely off when not used; (4)

grow fruits and vegetables (and even chickens, rabbits, etc.) in your

own garden, saving on food costs; (5) sell all your motor vehicles

and get a bicycle -- bike riding is free; (6) we use too much water

for bathing; get wet and turn off the water; then wash and turn the

water back on to rinse; this will greatly reduce your water

consumption (you may have to convince the water company to base all

charges on consumption levels; currently, many charges are fixed, and

not proportional to usage).



People who don't own their home, or pay for their utilities directly,

should be able to negotiate a lower rent, when they reduce their

water and power consumption.



Instead of focusing on the downstream effect -- crime -- let's help

each other reduce the cause of crime: the need for money! Maybe the

police department would even offer to help! Anything that reduces

violence and crime would make their job easier, so they should be

willing to help....



Mike Vandeman