William R. Richardson: “the debate today will be police versus pork and politics versus public safety. Here is what the President said about the…”

“the debate today will be police versus pork and politics versus public safety. Here is what the President said about the cops program: I made a commitment, a promise, to put a hundred thousand more police in our streets because there is simply no better crime fighting tool to be found. I intend to keep that promise. Anyone on Capitol Hill who wants to play partisan politics with police officers for America should listen carefully. I will veto any effort to repeal or undermine the hundred thousand police commitment, period. Mr. Speaker, under the Republican plan there is no guarantee that one police officer will be hired. It is a pork program of the highest order. Here are five myths about the cops program that they are going to try to perpetuate: Myth No. 1, that the cops program will not put 100,000 new officers on the street. It works. The plan does work. With this week's COPS FAST awards the President has already provided grants to hire almost 17,000 new police officers in just 4 months. He is well on the way of reaching 100,000 new community police officers, and we cannot retreat from this goal.”