Newark Residents Outraged About Whitney Houston Funeral’s Cost To City

After finding out that the city of Newark, New Jersey will have to foot a bill of $187,000 in police overtime for Whitney Houston’s funeral, some residents are angry, arguing that Houston’s family should chip in or pay it entirely.

Because Houston’s funeral was private, thousands of people who wanted to attend but couldn’t lined the streets, held back by barriers and police protection. Nearly 200 police officers were stationed at the New Baptist Church, the funeral home and a family gathering at the Newark Club. And while residents were honored to have Houston as a hometown hero at the time, the $187K bill will be subtracted from the city’s relatively small 4 million dollar budget.

According to CBS New York, many taxpayers are outraged that the bill is passed on to them, given that they didn’t get any access to the events, and that it was in fact more protection for Houston’s family than the city’s residents.

While no media were allowed inside the funeral, there was one camera televising the event, and several media outets on platforms covering the service from outside.

After Houston’s death on February 11th, sales of her songs again hit the top of the charts.

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