There was a massive event in my city this weekend and traffic was an absolute disaster. One of my work acquaintances has contacts in the local police department which was in charge of directing traffic. He and I were just talking about the event and how basically a whole section of the city was at a standstill for almost an hour.
At one point in the day, I (stupidly) tried to get through one section and the cops were doing nothing. This was really frustrating, but I could tell that it was partially a lack of manpower issue: there just weren't enough cops in that very busy intersection to do everything necessary to make it run smoothly.
My coworker is nice enough but he's older so we think a bit differently. He said “none of these young guys have any initiative and none of them want to work any overtime. They got a raise and I think that's a big part of it.” My response was “good for them” and he looked a bit surprised.
I'm so sorry that they're getting paid a better wage and no longer have to give up their weekend just to make ends meet. I'm so sorry they don't want to spend their precious free time getting yelled at and blamed for the disorganization of someone else.
Moral of the story: if you want to plan a huge event for a weekend (Mother's Day weekend, no less) either offer great incentive pay or expect to be understaffed.