Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio has issued a dire warning to Phoenix residents about the shortage of police officers and increase in crime. DiCiccio says the shortage of officers comes at a time when politicians “want to turn criminals loose.”
“So far this year, Phoenix homicides have increased by 52% – a bigger increase than even New York City,” said DiCiccio in a newsletter. “Police around the nation continue to be scrutinized and requests for defunding the police continue to be heard. With 64 more domestic violence homicides.”
“We’re so short of officers, we can’t answer calls on time,” wrote DiCiccio. “Even though we desperately need more officers, the ones we do have are under constant attack from politicians who want to lock down law-abiding citizens with one hand and turn criminals loose with the other.”
The Councilman finds this unacceptable and credits his fellow Councilmembers, Jim Waring and Debra Stark, for being irresponsible in the matter of protecting Phoenix cops and citizens.
“We had a letter that would have sent a reasonable proposal for civilian police oversight to the ballot. Guess who held it up? Jim Waring and Debra Stark refused to sign the letter putting it on the agenda” according Councilman DiCiccio and, “instead, their inaction let the crazy leftist control the agenda.”
DiCiccio’s Chief of Staff Sam Stone, in an appearance of KFYI’s James T. Harris show, discussed the details the newly formed Office of Accountability and Transparency (OAT), a citizen oversight committee, stating that the committee was created to “gut and neuter the police department and put them under the thumb of leftist politicians.”
Stone also described an alternate motion to the proposed citizen oversight committee, “(an alternate motion), that would have put in place a board similar to OAT, but which would not have damaged the police department. The proposed alternative would have provided additional transparency and accountability,” according to Stone. The reason why the alternative motion was not considered by the whole Council was due to the fact that Waring and Stark refused to allow it on the Council’s agenda.
Stone also pointed out that Mayor Kate Gallego and Councilwoman Laura Pastor have shown that they personally do not believe in the “extremes left’s message” but still go a long with it. “My question,” asked Stone, “is how many bodies does the Mayor have to see in the streets before she does something to stand up for our cops?”