Whitney Houston Funeral Costs Anger New Jersey Residents

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By Sowmya Krishnamurthy

The city of Newark has incurred $187,000 in costs for police overtime surrounding Whitney Houston’s homegoing funeral. CBS reports that some taxpayers are not too pleased with having to pay the added costs for Newark police security that maintained public safety and barriers between fans and the proceedings. Nearly 200 police officers were stationed at the New Baptist Church, which housed the funeral itself, blocks surrounding the church and the Newark Club afterwards, where the family gathered.

CBS interviewed local residents and some felt Houston’s family should have paid for the costs. Quincy Ruffian said, “If they [the family] wanted it to go that far, do that much, they should have been the ones providing for it.” Others were more angered by the fact that the taxpayer-supported ceremony was not open to the public and rather, relegated to stars like Tyler Perry, Alicia Keys and R.Kelly and even Newark mayor Cory Booker.

Whitney Houston’s high-profile funeral service, took place on February 18 at her childhood church and was both nationally-televised and live-streamed. The superstar died on February 11 at the age of 48. Her full autopsy was released this week, which showed cause of death as accidental drowning and she had "possibly overdosed on a narcotic substance, prescription medications, over the counter medications and alcohol,” per the Beverly Hills Police Department.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/04/07/whitney-houston-funeral-costs-anger-new-jersey-residents/]View the full article[/url]