No Levy to Keep Criminals Jailed?

Sheriff Fred Abdalla, again, has put a levy on the ballot to help with funding of the Jefferson County Jail. Again, the levy has failed. Does no one see this as a problem? Okay Okay...I get it! I KNOW that NO ONE wants to have to pay anymore taxes than we already do, so we see school levies fail time after time because God forbid we have to hand over a little more money to help secure a good education for our children and now we can't spare the extra money to keep criminals in jail. Make perfect sense, yes? NO!!!

Fred Abdalla is a damn good sheriff and Jefferson County is LUCKY to have a sheriff who is such a huge advocate for children and who tries his best to get the crime and the criminals off of our streets. It saddens me that not enough people in Jefferson County feel that this is an important enough issue to vote in favor of? I do not and can not understand this mindset and yes I KNOW that times are tough, but I also know that my children are more important to me than being taxed a little more money to keep someone off of the streets who could and would do harm to them.

The morning after the vote, Sheriff Abdalla wasn't curled up in a ball somewhere whining over the defeat of the levy, he was knocking on people's doors and helping to get them to a safe place when their area had been flooded. The only comment that I saw him make on the news was that the people had spoken and he would not ask again. Very sad indeed! This is not a Sheriff who sits on his ass behind a desk barking orders while others do the work...Fred Abdalla is a very pro-active Sheriff and takes interest and pride in this county! I recall two evenings before this past Christmas walking through Kroger's parking lot in Steubenville and there he was, riding around patrolling the parking lot with Christmas music blaring from his vehicle and the windows rolled down so that everyone could hear it. That was a great feeling! (I'm quite sure that he could have taken vacation time to spend with his family instead of patrolling the area parking lots to make sure that WE were safe and weren't getting mugged two nights before Christmas)

My final thoughts for the moment on this issue are for those who didn't feel the levy was important enough to vote in favor of: when something bad happens to a member of your family or one of your friends, or even yourself simply because there is not enough money to keep all of the criminals behind bars...you have no right to bitch!