Government expenditures

Gonz

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
This needs its own thread.

During peacetime our military uses live ammuniition & real tanks and planes, gear they normally use during war.

A judge sits on the bench or in their office 5 days a week, 48-50 weeks a year.

A prosecutor works 90+ hours a week.

Cops get paid.

Point I'm asking...

Why, whenever we have a war, or a huge trial (OJ) or the Klan marches or whatever, why does everyone say it costs X? We're already paying for those services. The people are doing what they get paid for. How does the OJ trial, for instance, cost $90,000,000? Where do the extra expenses come from?

This has always puzzled me.
 
Well, things like the Klan marches take extra coverage. You can't just have the beat cops leave the rest of the city unmanned while you babysit the robes. So, you pay overtime to off duty cops to cover it. That's pretty expensive.

As for the war, I can see from Uncs post in the other thread about the extra food expenses, particularly for the Guard members, as well as shipping costs. And we are going to use a few things that normally don't get used or used up in training.

The OJ case, I don't know where they pulled that out thier ass, unless the courthouse needed a remodel to look good for the cameras:shrug:
 
Granted, there will be some extra expenses during a war but $90 billion dollars??? C'mon.
 
I agree, I think the estimates we are seeing are including every expense for the soldiers, including expenses we would have been paying anyway. But it is odd to me that the government won't shoot out an estimate, it's not like we are going to have to stop when we hit that number anyway.
 
Paying the overtime for 30 extra officers and a mobile command center to control the media and slobbering public. A higher class of hotel cloistering to keep the jury more secure. The prosecution for the state spending much more than it would on a nobody defendant to cover all bases against the 'dream team' assault.

Sequestration was estimated to cost $3446 a day
Other significant costs included $100,000 by the coroner and $20,000 by the auditor-controller for above and beyond repetitious work.
The cost, for example, of the jury tour of Simpson's mansion, the murder scene, and the restaurant where Ms. Brown last ate cost the county $114,617
Los Angeles Police Department also spent $136,000 providing security and air support.(probably mostly sunk costs)
The 9.2$ million in extra costs directly to the court were deferred by rentals of space, parking, and TV revenues.
The whole change of venue action added more.
 
I'm reading out on the web that the trial cost 9 million.. not 90.

Heck.. the drawn out McMartin daycare trails only cost 13 million.
 
unclehobart said:
The cost, for example, of the jury tour of Simpson's mansion, the murder scene, and the restaurant where Ms. Brown last ate cost the county $114,617
Click to expand...

There ya go. I could have put 'em all on a city bus & had it cost $112. in gas.
 
Don't forget the costs of organizing and publishing the 50,000 page official court transcript ... *gag*

9 prosecutor salaries (mostly sunk... but overkill)
 
Gonz said:
unclehobart said:
The cost, for example, of the jury tour of Simpson's mansion, the murder scene, and the restaurant where Ms. Brown last ate cost the county $114,617
Click to expand...

There ya go. I could have put 'em all on a city bus & had it cost $112. in gas.
Click to expand...
That in and of itself may be accouting voodoo wherein they tried to lump in the cost of the bus that brought them there....which is a crock.
 
Salaries are paid in everyday taxes. They aren't costs to a trial because they'd get paid to go fishing.
 
But a normal trial would at best get two prosecutors. The cost for the other seven would be realized as a strain placed on other parts of the system for their having done little else in that time ... not to mention their legal assistants being rather horseblinded into oceans of phonecalls and monochromatic 'Simpsons only' trial time. They probably had to pay to borrow attorneys from other counties to pick up the slack in the interim. $$ka-ching$$
 
Any high profile case is going to suck up manhours in investigative and preparitory effort. Add to that all of the extra lab/forensic work that was ordered trying to nail the whole thing down and the paid "experts" to offset each others claims...it climbs much faster than you would imagine.
 
For the Hells Angels trials here they had to build a whole new courthouse next to the prison, so that they didn't have to risk transporting the thugs outside.

Personally, I think the courthouse belongs inside the barbed wire.
 
While investigating OJ, didn't an entourage fly form LA to Detroit a buncha times? And Squiggy's the only one that broght up the "experts" those people charge unbelieveable fees. Some people make a 6 figure income being professional expert witnesses. I'm sure on top of their fee they get flown to the venue and then recieve meals and hotel accomodations in addition to their fee.
 
Ya, I'd imagine the blowjobs and crack would go in the entertainment column of the expense account.
 
OK, now we know what the expenses may contain but we've yet to explain why these things are extra cost. They are already built into the budget & salaries. All these things are done to try Joe Schmoe, the drug mini-kingpin, working out of Detoit & Alberta but getting busted in Atlanta. Nothing has changed except the high-profile (in the OJ or Blake case).

It still seems we're already paying these bills so there is no extra cost. Just somebody looking to make a headline.
 
The Joe Schmoe trial is over in 3 days. He gets to wear one of those stylish orange jumpsuits. He gets an overworked public defender that doesn't give a rats ass and usually can't even remember Joes name. The prosecuting attorneys office doesn't have to do much because the defense will suck anyway. The case will never be aired on Court TV or American Justice. It's a Flashing Blue Light cheapo trial. The public doesn't wanna know about Joe, except that he's in jail. These are the trials that the budget is based on.
OJ, Robert Blake etc. have the money to hire smart, flamboyant lawyers. Who hire publicists, and jury profilers and expert witnesses. The prosecution has to spend more on this kind of a case than a Joe Schmoe case or they lose coming out of the gate.
It's not about being fair, it's not about justice. It's about winning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top