Newark, New Jersey taxpayers have been left with a bill of $187,000 from the police overtime associated with Whitney Houston’s private funeral.
The cost represents approximately 5 percent of the city’s $4 million annual police budget, reported
CBS 2 in New York. The costs were deemed necessary in the interest of public safety even though the public was barred from attending the funeral.
Some city residents expressed outrage that Houston’s family is not picking up the expense. “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous when you have people who are unemployed and homeless, people walking up and down the streets,” Newark resident Quincy Ruffin told CBS 2. “If they wanted it to go that far, do that much, they should have been the ones providing for it.”
The overtime included nearly 200 police officers, some of whom were posted around the funeral home, the New Baptist Church, and the Newark Club, where the family held a private gathering.
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