Thank you ThinkProgress for highlighting one of the most ridiculous instances of budget cutting I have ever seen.
Last night, in between approving city expenditures and other routine agenda items, the Topeka, Kansas City Council debated one rather controversial one: decriminalizing domestic violence.
Here’s what happened: Last month, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s office, facing a 10% budget cut, announced that the county would no longer be prosecuting misdemeanors, including domestic violence cases, at the county level. Finding those cases suddenly dumped on the city and lacking resources of their own, the Topeka City Council is now considering repealing the part of the city code that bans domestic battery. [...]
Since the county stopped prosecuting the crimes on September 8th, it has turned back 30 domestic violence cases. Sixteen people have been arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery and then released from the county jail after charges weren’t filed.
Holy shitballs.
The apparent justification for no longer prosecuting domestic violence cases, and avoiding the need to do so by simply making domestic battery legal, is that it just costs too much.
If that's truly the case. If we truly cannot afford to prevent men, or women, from beating their spouses, I think it's time to take drastic measures. Such as, ya' know, raising taxes to afford the basic shit required to be a functioning society. For civilization's sake.
Shameful.