A friend of mine owns a house a few blocks from Facebook. She has had to stay in her house due to shootings and police manhunts several times over the past few years.
The problem is real and I don't blame Facebook for being concerned. Although, it's sadly typical of them to propose their own privately-paid-for police force.
I’m not sure what are the other (short-term) options: Facebook encourages employees to participate in education efforts (STEMs, mostly, for obvious recruiting reasons) and Zuckerberg himself spends a lot there too — but that takes time. De-criminalising drug trade is far more controversial than what Facebook can do. I'm sure they offer well paid jobs to local people as non-technical subsidiaries but… Short of sponsoring a cash-for-gun program, what can they do? That’s a serious question: I’m sure any idea will be explored by Facebook decision-makers who read this.
Are you aware of any documentation on this? I'm not sure how state tax works for businesses -- surely they're not paying percentages of revenue? If that revenue is already exported through tax loop-holes out of the country, how can they pay taxes on it in-state?
I'm not disputing the claim, I've just never seen any discussion on state tax (except for Amazon trying(?) to dodge it).
The problem is real and I don't blame Facebook for being concerned. Although, it's sadly typical of them to propose their own privately-paid-for police force.