Large or small, east or west, all of us are looking to cut costs these days.  I have a good idea for the Big Apple bean counters who will undoubtedly lament this grand figure.  Why don’t you pay those public servants a decent living wage?  Then they wouldn’t have to work so much overtime.  I suspect those very same politicians who will scream at this number like it just the way it is.  Why?

Because if a cop works double time and makes lots of OT cash, he or she still only gets ONE pension and ONE set of benefits.  Cheaper to pay cops 30K and work them into the ground.  So forgive me if I chuckle at those extra checks and how much they help a copper or a fireman with the family budget.  The city is getting what they want, too.

I copied their message below:

The Art of Manliness blog and Old Spice are having a Man of the Year contest and Howie Farmer, a retired NY police officer who was injured in the line of duty, is one of the finalists. Voting ends tomorrow night and Howie’s in second place. Howie is such a great guy and his friends adore him and really want him to win. Please vote for Howie, and share this link with any of your buddies. Thank you so much.

Here’s the link:
http://artofmanliness.com/howie-farmer/

I was recently on a subway in New York City and was pleased to see professional, sharp-looking recruitment posters for the NYPD.  They looked exciting enough; speeding police cars with the lights blazing, horseback cops, motorcycle cops, K9 cops, helicopter cops…

Then I saw one that said this:

“NYPD starting salary recently raised to $35,881.00!”

Yippie!  RAISED to $35K!! Are you freakin kidding me?  I can think of a few rural areas where a family might survive on that.  New York City is not one of them.  And the hidden tragedy here is that NYPD training is quite excellent.  So that means all of those $35K cops are going to soak the city for the good training, and then leave and go work elsewhere. 

I guess all I can say is “god bless you” for the women and men who work at THAT job for THAT salary.  Be safe – the city doesn’t own your health or your life, and especially not at those numbers.

“NYPD Witnesses:  Confusion After 50-Shot Slaying Of Bridegroom”

“SLAYING OF BRIDEGROOM?” 

Did you know it would also be factually correct to say, “Shooting of parolee with history of gun possession?”  Hmmm, if we did that, they would say we are racist totalitarians, right?

Keep in mind these cops are on trial for manslaughter.  I don’t frankly know what happened that night (see my prior post on Al Sharpton and his evil powers).  But it doesn’t much matter what happened, now does it? 

Since the mainstream media has decided that a “Bridegroom” has been “slayed,” I suppose the possibility that a “suspect” has been “stopped” is now out the window.  Certainly those judgemental, two-bit reporters would give a cop killer the same treatment, right?

Sure.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to get the word out on the media.  I will be a tireless watchdog for bias like this headline.  Words matter.

FACT:  The cops were at that night club because it was a haven for illegal guns.

FACT:  Mr. Bell and every one of his companions had priors for illegal weapons possession.  One of them was a robber who had shot at a victim.  I guess the objective folks at the New York Times “forgot” that part of the story.

FACT:  The van they were in almost ran over a cop and then rammed the cops’ minivan. Twice.

FACT:  If Mr. Bell was White, then Al Sharpton would not have adopted his cause and FORCED this murder trial.  If he was White, you would not even know his name right now.  Same circumstances, same story, NO murder trial.

I keep looking for Mr. “reverend” Sharpton at the cops’ funerals when they are killed.  I haven’t seen him at a single one.  Where is the outrage for that violence?   For that matter, where is he when his own constituents are killing each other (which they do with greater regularity than all the police shootings in the nation combined!).  I guess he is too busy for outrage then.

I hope the jury will remember the US Supreme Court’s warning that we cannot judge the actions of police officers using hindsight.  Those cops thought he had a gun.  They were wrong and that is horrific.  But it is not even close to murder.

I wrote in this previous post how the Los Angeles politicians were trying to ruin their department with draconian financial disclosure rules.  Now I turn to the east, and say out loud what so many must be thinking:

There is simply no reason left to be a New York Police Officer.  I know it sounds rash, but as my post on salaries shows, the money is disgusting.  Really, who would want to do that job for 25 grand?  I love being a cop, and I wouldn’t consider it for a second.

Now come these two gut punches for the men and women in blue.  First, a story that shows NYPD can’t recruit at all.  No duh, Bloomberg…you don’t pay squat!  Then, take the cops who you don’t pay a living wage, and do what?

TAKE AWAY FREE PARKING!

You’re kidding, right?

Well at least they won’t have to worry about financial disclosure; they have no money to disclose.  Disgusting.

I did a little research on the “Center for Constitutional Law.”  I am always suspicious when someone names their organization that way (sounds too much like the “Center for all things good and right”).  It’s as if they are begging me to check them out.  So I did.  Here is what they like to do:

They sued the first Bush administration to stop the liberation of Kuwait.

They sued Clinton for bombing Kosovo.

They directly compare Israel’s foreign policy to Augusto Pinochet’s ethnic cleansing.

And their current nonsensical position is the same tired whining I hear over and again.  They imply that police stops should be related to the race of the population at large.  Hogwash.

It is not my fault (nor any other cop’s) that racial minorities commit more crimes than whites.  Here are the cold facts:

According to the latest federal figures, blacks are 12% of the U.S. population but account for 27% of all sexual-assault convictions, 66% of all robbery convictions and 38% of all fraud and embezzlement convictions.  Similar numbers, by the way, for murder.

This is awful and inexcusable, but it is not my fault.  See one of my original posts here for all the social systems that failed these young men prior to the police ever meeting them.

Where is the article accusing the welfare system of a culture of dependency?  Did I miss the one that criticizes public schools for selling short the African American population with crummy schools, no supplies, and low teaching standards?  I searched the Center’s website but could not find even one such suit…

Get pissed at them, Mr. Ratner, not the hard working cops who have to clean up their mess.

If you really want to see what cops think, check out the president of their rank and file union in this video:

You probably recall that “America’s Mayor” was presiding when 9-11 hit.  What you might not know is that New York cops work for poverty wages, under the worst benefits and pay plan of any big city cop in America.  Period.  That might come as a surprise, since they are so famous.  Giuliani stopped their pay for 3.5 years.  No raises at all, when they already are making next to nothing!  Are you kidding?

Check out the salaries of America’s large police forces.  These are starting numbers, as of today:

Los Angeles:  $54,475

Chicago:  $43,104

Miami:  $44,592

And Giuliani’s heroes in blue?

New York:  $32,600

Barely above poverty wages.  Disgusting and unacceptable.  I hope he is ashamed of himself.

Now understand that Brooklyn South Narcotics detectives deal with the filthiest of the gutter garbage, no question.  But there is never an excuse to steal drugs, presumably to sell for profit.  Never.  So that covers the CROOKED part.

As for the DUMB, this guy actually got caught by bragging about the drug theft on his own wiretap.  That means he knew the line was being recorded.  Are you kidding me? 

I am the biggest supporter of cops that ever lived.  But drug dealers are drug dealers, uniform or not.  Straight to jail with this guy, I say.