Money that Oakland could have used to outfit the police with body cams. It may be cheaper to let them start burning the beyotch down.
The first two weeks of mass protests that have enveloped several East Bay cities cost Oakland $1.36 million in overtime costs alone, city officials said Wednesday.
Officials did not have cost estimates on overtime accrued after Dec. 6, or additional costs for handling the recurring protests, such as equipment rentals. Based on data from past protests, those costs likely would have upped the total price tag so far to about $2 million.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said Wednesday that it has spent $193,000 providing deputies to help police protests. Berkeley and the California Highway Patrol said they had not yet tabulated their overtime costs.[…]
The Occupy protests, which also were marked by anti-police sentiment and anarchist vandalism, cost Oakland $4.8 million over nine months, including $4 million in overtime, according to a city report. While Occupy protests were sporadic, the current protest movement has been taking the streets nightly, forcing the city to ramp up overtime, especially for police.[…]
Gallo said that just as distressing as the nearly $100,000 per day overtime bill is the reduction in police services for residents and the blow to the city’s image caused by the protests.
“We’re trying to represent an image to the world to bring business to Oakland so we can hire local residents,” he said. “This is very damaging.”