Retired NYPD officers say they are gathering re-enforcements to prevent their names and pension amounts from hitting the World Wide Web.The rationale behind this move is to rally public sentiment against pensions.
"There is really no reason for them to disclose our name. And I think all of the unions should get behind this and put an end to it," said retired NYPD Sergeant Larry Williams.
The Empire Center for New York State Policy in Albany says taxpayers have the right to know what retired officers are bringing home in pensions. Currently, there are 44,000 retired police officers. Those who retired in 2009 on average receive about $59,000 annually. The Empire Center says it wants to match names with pension amounts and put it on their website.
"Inherently, transparency makes people more accountable and makes for a more honest system. The fact that they are trying to hide it is raising a red flag for us," said Tim Hoefer of the Empire Center for New York State Policy.
The NYPD pension fund refuses to turn over names. The issue is in court and a state Supreme Court judge has ruled against releasing them. The NYPD retirees say a target will be on their backs if that information is ever released.
"Members in combat that have been fatal to the perpetrator or the perpetrator was injured. And we have numerous people who are incarcerated who would be very interested in that information," said Retired NYPD Deputy Chief Kevin Clark.
"Is my family going to be threatened? Am I going to be receiving phone calls? It is just not right," said Retired NYPD Lieutenant Gary Weksler.
The Empire Center says it already has the names of retired and active officers from all other departments across the state. The group says by the end of the month it will officially file its appeal to get the NYPD retiree names.
They always use the cop pensions as the linchpin for this kind of stuff because they tend to be the highest.
That's all this is about.
Get the public to say "Hey, I don't have a pension! Why do these guys get a pension?"
The war against public employees continues to ratchet up.
I'm all for accountability an transparency...so what do the illegal aliens and "undocumented workers" cost the tax payers of NYC?
ReplyDeleteHow much am I contributing to this?
I used to work in a Mexican restaurant a lot of years ago. Some of those folks, esp. the delivery boys, were undocumented. They cost you as a taxpayer nothing because they were too afraid to pop up out of the crowd and apply for any benefits - they were afraid they would get deported.
ReplyDeleteThey did, however, have fake Social Security #'s and had taxes taken out of their checks.
This was before 9/11.
Perhaps it's different now.
But I don't think so.
if you want to know who's stealing your money as a taxpayer, take a look at the trillions they printed and handed out to JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, et al.
Perhaps the Empire Center should look for transparency in the Contract for Excellence scandal, the City Time scandal, the amount of money Mikey has made off the backs of the working class in the form of no-bids, why Joel Klein and Eric Nadlestern are both collecting from the same public pension fund that they want to destroy for the rest of us, perhaps the source of collusion among the judiciary and the executive branch of the State and City of New York that resulted in the installation of the totally unqualified Cathie Black as the DOE Chancellor.
ReplyDeleteStop looking at the cops, the firefighters, and the teachers. Screw you.