Your Money or Your Life

Good news—the Los Angeles City Council refused to place a half-cent sales tax increase on the May 17 ballot. (We already shell out 8.25%.) Bad news—that means black people may riot.

Or so says Police Chief William Bratton.

"You have the opportunity to put us finally on the road that will make us the safest largest city in America." But without [the] additional [1,260 police] officers, he warned, "At each incident we risk this city going up in flames once again, which has happened twice in recent history."

More here. The City has an annual budget of around $5 billion; the extra cops would cost $200 million, and City Councilmembers make more than $140,000 a year.