City attorney of San Bernardino Jim Penman had the audacity to tell the truth to the residents of bankrupt San Bernardino at a recent city council meeting. Taking stock of the fact that San Bernardino’s murder rate has jumped 50 percent over the last year, that the city has been cutting its police force by about 80 officers, and that there is no good news in sight, Penman stated, “lock your doors and load your guns.” He stands by the statement today, explaining, “you should say what you mean and mean what you say.”

Penman continued, “Let’s be honest, we don’t have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year…that’s far too high for a city of this size …. I’m not advocating that people go out, who don’t have any training, and buy firearms. I certainly strongly caution anyone who has children at home not to have a loaded gun in the house.”

City Councilwoman Wendy McCommack agreed with Penman: “We need to take our streets back, we need to take our neighborhoods back and we need to protect our homes, and that’s what I think Jim was trying to say.”

These are the wages of fiscal collapse. Californians would be wise to take notice. So would Americans more broadly.