Quote from icarus618:
The article deals solely with the bloated compensation and benefits at the state level. California's fiscal problems go much deeper than that. I concur with tomdavis who supplied some links.
On a personal level, this state doesn't feel like the place in which I grew up. I feel the same about the country as well and it has nothing to do with who or which party is in power.
I grew up in SoCal, laid my mother to rest here, still have one elderly parent here, own property here. Yet extinguishing my domiciliary status with this state can't come soon enough for me. It isn't the high taxes that makes me look for an exit, and as a single person I am impacted by Prop 30. I'm willing to pay higher taxes if it solves anything. I know it won't. I've seen enough. The politics of this state is fucked up.
A few weeks ago I was stopped by a cop for crossing the street at a T intersection on my way to lunch after the market close. He held my hands behind my back and violated my Fourth Amendment rights by doing a Terry frisk. He said he was checking me for drugs and weapons. When I told him that it is legal to cross at a T intersection in California and that he didn't have reasonable suspicion to frisk me, he got visibly upset and threatened me with arrest for impeding a police officer. He had me sit on the sidewalk with my legs folded and crossed and my hands behind my back while he ran a check on my driver's license for half an hour. He eventually let me go by saying I was "the luckiest guy in the world" because he was being called away on an emergency and didn't have time to write a citation.
The story doesn't end there. I was pissed off and went to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint with the shift commander. He just gave me the run-around. He said it was standard procedure to frisk people that an officer comes in contact with because "there are a lot of people who want to hurt us." I asked if he had heard of the Fourth Amendment. His response was, "that only applies in court." I felt disgusted and just shook my head. When he saw I was not satisfied, he offered me a "ride along" but refused to take my complaint.
That was definitely a new experience for me.
