BLUE SLAVES

Mandatory police overtime is supposed to be for REAL emergencies, like earthquakes and riots.

In San Jose, mandatory police overtime is currently required because of the incompetence of the current and past city administrations.

Sometimes winning can cause a lifetime of losing. Chuck Reed was really pleased that he got 70% of the voters to agree to take pension benefits away from young police officers.

This "win" has caused the number of police officers willing to work for San Jose to go down past what the city needs to staff the police department.

Now the city refuses to hire officers from other jurisdictions, but just wants to make the current officers work longer hours.

I knew a disabled Palo Alto emergency operator who contended that Palo Alto had a long term policy of forcing 911 operators to regularly work overtime.

I do not want the work of policing to be done by tired, stressed out officers who are not allowed a normal family life.

I understand that sometimes public safety officers MUST work mandatory overtime. But an emergency should be a real emergency.

If you define political stupidity as an emergency, then emergencies will never end.