Staten Island Congressman Complains of Lack of Federal Money for Cops

When it looked like the NYPD wasn't going to get any federal stimulus funds, everyone from the Governor on down was upset, so Obama relented and had Homeland Security scrape up $35 million for us. But when the big-money federal COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) grants came out in late July, the city was not on their funding list -- though Albany, Hudson, Monticello, Mt. Vernon, Newburgh, Niagara, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, Troy and Utica bagged a total of $5,035,597. The Feds said New York's crime was already low and NYPD didn't need the money as much as other locales.

Mayor Bloomberg, who had hoped for another $650 million, found this "disappointing, to say the least." Now Staten Island Congressman Michael McMahon is pissed, and has sent a letter to Joe Biden, in which he hopes that "the Administration will reconsider how it allocates COPS grants in the future to avoid punishing our most successful police departments that are also suffering from the strains caused by the current economic downturn..."

We're torn between rooting for more federal largesse and denouncing socialism.