In this article, a Massachusetts blogger points out that it is time to do something about those unionized police and firefighters who have failed to stamp out crime and fires.
It is time to unleash innovation and turnaround the police precincts where crime is highest: close them down and allow the cops to reapply for their jobs.
America could be a perfectly crime-free, safe nation if only we turned public safety over to bankers and lawyers and entrepreneurs.
The initiative–which is known as No Citizen Left Behind–requires the investment of billions of dollars for data collection, data analysis, turnaround specialists, and retraining of the current workforce.
Unfortunately this is so close to the insane reality of federal education policy that it is easy to think that it is real, not satire.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is reality in Camden, NJ, where Donald Norcross, the very powerful democratic party boss who runs the state through his back room partnership with Gov. Chris Christie, gutted the unions by closing down the Camden police force. Camden police officers had to re-apply for their jobs in the new county-level force controlled by the Norcross machine.
This coincided with the State takeover of the Camden schools. Now the Norcross charters do not have to answer to a local BOE and have a free rein.
It’s coming. One way to accomplish it is the retirement legislation put forth in state legislatures. Every opportunity to circumvent union control is being implemented.
The good news is that the number of fires is way down, though it seems to mean that firefighters are looking for other things to do.
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/07/firefighters-dont-fight-fires.html
Coming soon: InBloom data on police officers and firefighters and their VAM scores. Of course, VAM will be slightly modified to rank police officers and firefighters, and the scores will be posted in the LA Times and there will be stories written about the lowest scoring policeman.
And there will of course be a Race to the Top (of the building that’s on fire?) for them also. People want options of course, so I’ll get to choose the Camden Charter Fire Department over the Camden Public Fire Department, since the Charter doesn’t have to abide by the state regulations on Fire Departments, and it can fire firefighters 🙂 that don’t have a high enough VAM grade.
Bill Gates will want to come in and videotape all fire fights and police chases, and then outsource the evaluations of those videos so he can come up with the optimal way of fighting a fire. Bill is of course an expert at fighting fires (aka, bugs in Windows software).
What’s his name from Facebook will donate a few million/billion for all new fire trucks and police cars and tasers and tanks and drones to some poor town in New Jersey.
Michelle will morph from SuperWoman to The Human Torch (or was it Smokey the Bear?) so she can attempt to stay relevant.
Marcus Crassus was one of the wealthiest men in ancient Rome during the 1st century BC. His wealth gained him a spot in the plutocratic First Triumvirate, the three-way alliance of ambitious and wealthy men that undermined the government of the Roman Republic.
How did he get his wealth? He had his own private fire department at a time when there was no public one. He would show up at fires and refuse to put them out unless the owners of threatened buildings would sell their real estate to him for a fraction of their value.
I show this video to my students every year to initiate a discussion of public goods.
“Let’s face it. There are a few outstanding police and fire fighters that are “Masters”. They are much better at controlling crime and fires and they are deserving of “Merit Pay” and should be the ones who get to stick around in the case of layoffs, despite their lack of seniority.
Much better to let politics, personal connections and under-the-table favoritism determine who gets to keep their job in times of layoffs. Who cares about experience, knowledge, wisdom, judgment and long-term loyalty. (Besides, who wants those old, graying, types anyway? Everyone knows their best days are behind them and they cost too much. Cut them off now and we can also screw them out of their pension…)
Who’s Next? What about Water Department Employees? Or public parks and transportation workers? Sanitation and sewer?
In fact, THIS is how future pay scales for any employees—public or private—should work. The new model will look something like a bell curve, with new employees making minimum wage, which rises slowly every year, plateauing in the employee’s middle years of working, which then start shrinking, slowly, as he or she ages…until they’re back to minimum wage in their 30th year, when we all know they’re “useless” anyway.
And—here’s the beauty part—once they get old and “ugly” they’ll be more likely to quit if they’re only making peanuts after year 23…
Then we can move the youngsters in, also at minimum wage, and keep ’em goin until THEY burn out.
THE FREE MARKET! What’s not to like? ;-)”
This is our present fascist Amerika. This is where they want to take us. Blame the firefighters for being bad citizens who would not help another of their community members. Shame on them. Why do they accept this? Criminal is what it is in our criminal lawless society we now have helped by both dems and rats. Do we need the charter school police? We sure do. The whole game in Amerika is out of control and the public is to blame for allowing it and now it is their responsibility to clean up the mess as if they do not no one else will. We are “Exceptionally Stupid and Self Destructive.” This shows up everywhere especially in our schools as that is where you change society for the worse or better. Now it is for the worse.