Detroit Free Press
December 8 2012
Two years ago, a newly elected Rick Snyder told the Free Press editorial board he was determined to be a new kind of governor -- a pragmatist focused like a laser on initiatives that promised to raise standards of living for all Michiganders.
And until last week, we believed him.
For two years, we supported Snyder as he took painful steps to restore Michigan's fiscal stability and confront a crisis in which plunging tax revenues and mounting obligations to retired workers threatened to cripple the state's cities and school districts.
We criticized the governor for signing legislation that burdened a woman's right to choose, condoned discrimination against gays, and beggared colleges and universities to pay for business tax cuts.
But we also indulged many compromises Snyder maintained were necessary to advance his pro-growth agenda. And when ideologues on the right and left mounted campaigns designed to hamstring state government by limiting its authority to raise revenues, regulate labor relations, and fund critically needed infrastructure, we joined the governor in opposing them.
In short, we trusted Snyder's judgment.
That trust has now been betrayed -- for us, and for the hundreds of thousand of independents who voted for Snyder with the conviction that they were electing someone more independent, and more visionary, than partisan apparatchiks like Wisconsin's Scott Walker or Florida's Rick Scott.
Last week, in an abrupt about-face Snyder's defenders said was born of his frustration with organized labor, the governor unleashed a legislative blitzkrieg that seems certain to bring a bill barring closed-shop contracts to his desk next week.
He has already promised to sign it.
Watching Snyder explain his right-to-work reversal was disturbing on several levels.
His insistence that the legislation was designed to promote the interests of unionized workers and "bring Michiganders together" was grotesquely disingenuous; even as he spoke, security personnel were locking down the capital in anticipation of protests by angry unionists.
Snyder's ostensible rationale for embracing right-to-work legislation -- it was, he insisted, a matter of preserving workers' freedom of association -- was equally dishonest.
The real motive of Michigan's right-to-work champions, as former GOP legislator Bill Ballenger ruefully observed, is "pure greed" -- the determination to emasculate, once and for all, the Democratic Party's most reliable source of financial and organizational support.
Off track for a better state
Michigan voters have never trusted business interests or organized labor to govern Michigan unilaterally, and they have been appropriately wary of schemes to secure a permanent advantage for either side. Thus the ignominious demise of Proposal 2, which a majority of voters correctly perceived as an attempt not just to tip the scales of labor negotiations in unions' favor, but to lock them there for decades to come.
Snyder and other critics of Proposal 2 called it an overreach -- and we agreed, even when proponents warned that Snyder and his Republican legislative allies would move to crush the labor movement if the voters rejected Proposal 2.
Nonsense, we assured them -- Gov. Snyder is smarter than that. Too many of Snyder's higher priorities would be jeopardized, we reasoned, if he picked a needless fight over right-to-work.
Our reasoning was sound, and it remains so. What we miscalculated was Snyder's resolve to buck his own party's most irrational ideologues and keep his eye on the main prize: a better Michigan.
It's all about politics
Like the failed labor initiative it seeks to avenge, Snyder's right-to-work legislation is an attempt to institutionalize Republicans' current political advantage. Everything else is window dressing, and most of these diversionary talking points are demonstrably false.
The argument that right-to-work status makes states more competitive or prosperous is refuted by a mountain of evidence that shows right-to-work states trailing their union-friendly counterparts in key metrics like per capita wealth, poverty rates and health insurance coverage.
Snyder's contention that workers' First Amendment rights are compromised when a union they have freely elected to bargain on their behalf proposes a contract making union dues compulsory is equally specious. Employees are always free to reject such a contract or decertify the union that negotiated it, just as stockholders can force the ouster of corporate managers they deem unresponsive to their needs.
Snyder has long acknowledged that steamrolling right-to-work legislation through the Legislature would have enduring negative consequences for productive collaboration between workers and employees. His decision to embrace such legislation now destroys, in an eye blink, the trusting relationship he and his business allies have struggled to establish.
It also yokes a governor who once aspired to be seen as a new kind of Republican with the most ideological, backward-looking elements of that party -- the very people whose exclusionary vision of the country's future was rejected by voters in last month's election.
Trust betrayed
Snyder's closest brush with candor came when he suggested that his endorsement of right-to-work was less than voluntary -- a decision "that was on the table whether I wanted it to be on the table or not."
But that is less an excuse than a confession that Michigan's governor has abdicated his leadership responsibilities to Republican legislators bent on vengeance.
What reasonable person now believes that Snyder has the will or the wherewithal to deliver Michigan, or even his own party, from the failed politics of division?
Michigan voters who provided Snyder's margin of victory in 2010 feel betrayed, and they have every justification. If he was ever serious about being the governor who brought Michiganders together, Snyder has just sent himself back to Square One.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Hurricane Sandy shows cops for what they really are
Editorial: December 2012 issue
American Police Beat
The recent super storm known as Sandy has devastated parts of the East Coast and taken over 100 lives. The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City, Staten Island, Long Island and scores of other communities in New York and New Jersey are still trying to get back to something like normal.
As is usually the case when disaster strikes, we saw inspiring tales of citizens helping each other out in a tough situation. Even the national nightmare that was the never-ending 2012 presidential campaign was put on hold as adversaries put politics on hold in order to help those impacted by the storm.
But what really stood out was the performance of the brave men and women of public safety. Not only did first responders have to make sure their own families were safe, they then had to put on the uniform and go to work saving others.
Despite submerged cars, huge power outages, transformer explosions and just about everything else, law enforcement officers somehow managed to get the job done. Families trapped in the attics of their residences were brought to safety. People who lost everything were secured food and shelter.
Even beloved family pets that might have washed away by the floodwaters were rescued and reunited with their owners.
Not everyone made it, including NYPD Officer Artur Kasprzak — a six-year veteran of the NYPD. He managed to get six family members to safety before he was tragically lost to the storm.
It’s during these kinds of disasters when the general public sees the vast majority of cops for what they really are— selfless public servants dedicated to serving and protecting their communities come hell, or in this case, high water. It’s one of the rare times when the public is more likely to see a photo of a police officer hauling a wounded dog out of a sewer than a misleading or selectively edited use-of-force video on YouTube.
Some people have said, “there’s never a cop around when you need one.” But that tired cliché couldn’t be further from the truth. When disaster strikes people desperately need the police for a variety of reasons. And 999 times out of 1000 police respond quickly, compassionately and professionally.
That last part’s important. There are lots of folks these days that quite frankly don’t think cops are necessary. These are the people who talk about fiscal cliffs, pensions and unfunded liabilities. Cash strapped cities all over the country are laying off cops and in many areas replacing them with untrained, unarmed civilian volunteers.
These people will say that there’s nothing particularly heroic or complicated about what public safety professionals do and that the climbing cost of policing is unsustainable.
Some buy that proposition and some don’t. But one thing’s for sure — when disaster strikes police officers can make the difference between life and death for residents and citizens. For a lot of us that seems like the kind of insurance that’s well worth paying for.
No one’s slamming security guards, civilian police volunteers or anyone else that isn’t a certified peace officer. But the kind of commitment and dedication that real cops show time and time again when Mother Nature freaks out is not something you can teach. The kind of person that immediately starts thinking of others when disaster strikes is a special breed.
Some call them heroes. Others call them cops. But whatever people call them they sure come through in the clutch. It seems like that’s the kind of thing that’s worth preserving and protecting.
American Police Beat
The recent super storm known as Sandy has devastated parts of the East Coast and taken over 100 lives. The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City, Staten Island, Long Island and scores of other communities in New York and New Jersey are still trying to get back to something like normal.
As is usually the case when disaster strikes, we saw inspiring tales of citizens helping each other out in a tough situation. Even the national nightmare that was the never-ending 2012 presidential campaign was put on hold as adversaries put politics on hold in order to help those impacted by the storm.
But what really stood out was the performance of the brave men and women of public safety. Not only did first responders have to make sure their own families were safe, they then had to put on the uniform and go to work saving others.
Despite submerged cars, huge power outages, transformer explosions and just about everything else, law enforcement officers somehow managed to get the job done. Families trapped in the attics of their residences were brought to safety. People who lost everything were secured food and shelter.
Even beloved family pets that might have washed away by the floodwaters were rescued and reunited with their owners.
Not everyone made it, including NYPD Officer Artur Kasprzak — a six-year veteran of the NYPD. He managed to get six family members to safety before he was tragically lost to the storm.
It’s during these kinds of disasters when the general public sees the vast majority of cops for what they really are— selfless public servants dedicated to serving and protecting their communities come hell, or in this case, high water. It’s one of the rare times when the public is more likely to see a photo of a police officer hauling a wounded dog out of a sewer than a misleading or selectively edited use-of-force video on YouTube.
Some people have said, “there’s never a cop around when you need one.” But that tired cliché couldn’t be further from the truth. When disaster strikes people desperately need the police for a variety of reasons. And 999 times out of 1000 police respond quickly, compassionately and professionally.
That last part’s important. There are lots of folks these days that quite frankly don’t think cops are necessary. These are the people who talk about fiscal cliffs, pensions and unfunded liabilities. Cash strapped cities all over the country are laying off cops and in many areas replacing them with untrained, unarmed civilian volunteers.
These people will say that there’s nothing particularly heroic or complicated about what public safety professionals do and that the climbing cost of policing is unsustainable.
Some buy that proposition and some don’t. But one thing’s for sure — when disaster strikes police officers can make the difference between life and death for residents and citizens. For a lot of us that seems like the kind of insurance that’s well worth paying for.
No one’s slamming security guards, civilian police volunteers or anyone else that isn’t a certified peace officer. But the kind of commitment and dedication that real cops show time and time again when Mother Nature freaks out is not something you can teach. The kind of person that immediately starts thinking of others when disaster strikes is a special breed.
Some call them heroes. Others call them cops. But whatever people call them they sure come through in the clutch. It seems like that’s the kind of thing that’s worth preserving and protecting.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Labor News Update from Ron DeLord including Chicago Teachers Strike analysis
The Gospel According to DeLord
News Update September 21, 2012
By Ron DeLord
The aftermath of the Chicago teachers strike is yet to be determined, but perhaps the Chicago Teachers Union and the Mayor overplayed their hands and made the debate public, nasty and personal. I would predict no winners. It is my opinion that in this political and economic climate public sector unions need to stay under the radar if at all possible.
Fights with the city, county or state over minor issues need to be delayed until another day. Concentrate on preserving all of your wages, benefits and pensions. Being realistic is more important that being right.
We are in a long term transition and we need to be focused on making decisions that lay a framework for the next generation of officers, The fight to survive has just started.
I am continuing to experiment with presentation of articles and commentary. In this News Update I posted the article and highlighted key comments and points but in a random cut and paste. Many people are looking to see what is of interest to them and they do not need the entire article. If you want to read the entire article please click on Read More. Denver Police Contract Negotiations Break Down
Denver Negotiations Fall Apart
CBS News 4 has learned that negotiations for a new contract for Denver police officers have fallen apart with no deal reached, leading to binding arbitration which began Tuesday and is expected to last into next week.
The current contract between Denver police and the city expires on Dec. 31.
One contact said the two sides were eyeing a multi-year deal for Denver’s nearly 1,500 uniformed officers, but disagreements arose over potential raises along with seniority issues and work hours. The source says that police negotiators were asking for a raise in at least one of the years of the new deal.
Unable to cobble together a new collective bargaining agreement, an independent arbitrator began hearing from both sides this week. That arbitrator will listen to arguments from both sides and decide which proposal will be accepted as the new contract between the city and police. The arbitrator’s decision will be final and cannot be disputed or appealed.
While police were angling for a raise, it’s no secret that the city has been looking for cuts. The city has said it faces a $94 million budget shortfall next year and an ongoing structural deficit of about $30 million per year.
Denver firefighters agreed to accept $6 million in cuts over the next three years during their recent contract negotiations. The firefighters union agreed to no raises next year and 1 percent raises in 2014 and 2015. They also agreed to give up their $550 per employee uniform cleaning and maintenance allowance for 2013 and 2014.
But police negotiations have proved more problematic leading to a breakdown and the binding arbitration process.
Chicago Mayor Set To Shift Focus To Police, Fire, Transit Union Contracts
CHICAGO (CBS) – With the two-week trauma of the Chicago teachers’ strike now behind him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has turned his attention to other labor challenges ahead.
Police officers, firefighters, and transit workers are all either in contract talks, or getting ready to start negotiations.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine looked into how the outcome of the teachers’ strike might affect other public employees.
Perception is sometimes more important than reality, and if the perception is the teachers gained by taking a hard line and hitting the picket lines, even if Emanuel ended up getting most of what he wanted, other public employees might be tempted to take the same approach as the teachers.
“I actually think this strike is going to embolden other unions to take the mayor on,” said John Tilmon, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think-tank.
But the firefighters’ situation is somewhat different. They perform what’s described by state law as “essential services,” and aren’t allowed to strike.
Neither are police – whose negotiations are expected to be the most difficult – nor transit workers, who might be closer to either agreement or impasse than either of the public safety unions.
Read online. Miami-Dade asks employee unions to approve redesigned health-insurance plan
A contentious healthcare concession imposed earlier this year on Miami-Dade's nearly 26,000 county employees will almost certainly be history Thursday night after commissioners sign off on a new budget.
But the county won't be done wrestling with rising healthcare costs.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez's administration has warned employee unions that, beginning Jan. 1, health-insurance premiums for their dependents, such as spouses and children, will rise 20 percent. The hikes could be avoided, the administration says, if the unions agree to "redesign" the health-insurance plan to raise co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs.
Under the most popular plan the county offers, the co-pay to see a primary-care doctor would increase to $15 from $10. The co-pay to see a specialist would rise to $30 from $10. And a 30-day supply of prescription drugs would go up to $15 from $10.
The alternative for that same plan: hiking bi-weekly premiums for family coverage to $345 from $288.
Under either scenario, the county would continue paying HMO premiums for its employees.
Regardless of what happens with the insurance plans, employees will likely get some good news: When the new budget year begins Oct. 1, they will probably no longer be required to contribute an additional 4 percent of their base pay toward healthcare costs. A narrow majority of commissioners imposed that concession in January, on top of the 5 percent of their pay that employees already contribute toward healthcare.
That 20 percent comprises a nearly 12-percent increase in healthcare costs last year and an 8 percent increase this year. The county agreed not to raise premiums last year -- but that was a one-year deal, Gimenez said. Now, the county needs to make up for that by passing along last year's and this year's higher costs to employees, in the form of 20-percent dependent premium hikes.
"The single people will be subsidizing the family premiums, which I don't really see that there's a fairness there," Blackman said. The police union has yet to tell the county if it will bring the proposal to a vote. Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera said the union has asked the county for more information to verify its healthcare cost estimates.
"We walked out of there with more questions than answers," Rivera said of the PBA's meeting with the county's healthcare consultants. "If we're satisfied with what we get, we will certainly let the members make the choice."
LA Mayor Villaraigosa Defends Pension Reform Plan Against Union Opposition
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began his push for city pension reform Wednesday. The city of LA is trying to reduce its pension obligation by cutting benefits for new employees. Conan Nolan reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2012.
Even as city worker unions threatened to sue over a Los Angeles pension reform plan for unveiled this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defended his administration's proposal.
The plan, which would move the retirement age for new workers from 55 to 65 and would reduce the amount of final compensation, would save taxpayers up to $4 billion over 30 years, the mayor said.
The "common-sense plan" is "the next step of putting Los Angeles back toward a more sustainable, long-term fiscal path," Villaraigosa said.
The plan includes:
capping the maximum retirement benefit at 75 percent of final compensation, instead of the 100 percent currently allowed;
limiting cost-of-living increases to 2 percent;
increasing employee contributions to benefits;
eliminating retiree health care benefits for dependents; and
using a three-year average to calculate benefits to prevent pension "spiking."
Additionally, benefit amounts currently calculated at 2.16 percent of salary times the number of years worked would be reduced to a 2 percent rate.
"Every dollar that we save on pensions today is a dollar that we can spend on other city services," Englander said.
City unions have been quick opposed to the proposal, with a court fight not out of the question.
"This proposed ordinance is unsound and unlawful," said Service Employees International Union Local 721 President Bob Schoonover. "It's a full embrace of the CAO's vacuous plan to create a second tier in city worker pensions, which is a frontal attack on all city workers, future and present."
Ron DeLord has more than 40 years of service as a police union official at the local and state level. He is recognized as one of the leading police union contract negotiators in the United States. He has negotiated more than 150 police contracts. Ron is the co-author of six published books - two on police power, politics and confrontation, two on interested-based bargaining, and two on the history of Texas Lawmen. He has been on the guest faculty at the Harvard Law School since 1993 for the Harvard Trade Union Program and two Police Union Leadership Programs. He has conducted more than 50 seminars on public sector union leadership, power, organization, media and political action.
Ronald G. DeLord PLLC Attorney at Law
30320 La Quinta Dr Georgetown, TX 78628-1171
Tel. (512) 461-9420
Email - ron@rondelord.com Web - www.rondelord.com Blog - www.rondelord.com/gospelaccordingtodelord
News Update September 21, 2012
By Ron DeLord
The aftermath of the Chicago teachers strike is yet to be determined, but perhaps the Chicago Teachers Union and the Mayor overplayed their hands and made the debate public, nasty and personal. I would predict no winners. It is my opinion that in this political and economic climate public sector unions need to stay under the radar if at all possible.
Fights with the city, county or state over minor issues need to be delayed until another day. Concentrate on preserving all of your wages, benefits and pensions. Being realistic is more important that being right.
We are in a long term transition and we need to be focused on making decisions that lay a framework for the next generation of officers, The fight to survive has just started.
I am continuing to experiment with presentation of articles and commentary. In this News Update I posted the article and highlighted key comments and points but in a random cut and paste. Many people are looking to see what is of interest to them and they do not need the entire article. If you want to read the entire article please click on Read More. Denver Police Contract Negotiations Break Down
Denver Negotiations Fall Apart
CBS News 4 has learned that negotiations for a new contract for Denver police officers have fallen apart with no deal reached, leading to binding arbitration which began Tuesday and is expected to last into next week.
The current contract between Denver police and the city expires on Dec. 31.
One contact said the two sides were eyeing a multi-year deal for Denver’s nearly 1,500 uniformed officers, but disagreements arose over potential raises along with seniority issues and work hours. The source says that police negotiators were asking for a raise in at least one of the years of the new deal.
Unable to cobble together a new collective bargaining agreement, an independent arbitrator began hearing from both sides this week. That arbitrator will listen to arguments from both sides and decide which proposal will be accepted as the new contract between the city and police. The arbitrator’s decision will be final and cannot be disputed or appealed.
While police were angling for a raise, it’s no secret that the city has been looking for cuts. The city has said it faces a $94 million budget shortfall next year and an ongoing structural deficit of about $30 million per year.
Denver firefighters agreed to accept $6 million in cuts over the next three years during their recent contract negotiations. The firefighters union agreed to no raises next year and 1 percent raises in 2014 and 2015. They also agreed to give up their $550 per employee uniform cleaning and maintenance allowance for 2013 and 2014.
But police negotiations have proved more problematic leading to a breakdown and the binding arbitration process.
Chicago Mayor Set To Shift Focus To Police, Fire, Transit Union Contracts
CHICAGO (CBS) – With the two-week trauma of the Chicago teachers’ strike now behind him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has turned his attention to other labor challenges ahead.
Police officers, firefighters, and transit workers are all either in contract talks, or getting ready to start negotiations.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine looked into how the outcome of the teachers’ strike might affect other public employees.
Perception is sometimes more important than reality, and if the perception is the teachers gained by taking a hard line and hitting the picket lines, even if Emanuel ended up getting most of what he wanted, other public employees might be tempted to take the same approach as the teachers.
“I actually think this strike is going to embolden other unions to take the mayor on,” said John Tilmon, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think-tank.
But the firefighters’ situation is somewhat different. They perform what’s described by state law as “essential services,” and aren’t allowed to strike.
Neither are police – whose negotiations are expected to be the most difficult – nor transit workers, who might be closer to either agreement or impasse than either of the public safety unions.
Read online. Miami-Dade asks employee unions to approve redesigned health-insurance plan
A contentious healthcare concession imposed earlier this year on Miami-Dade's nearly 26,000 county employees will almost certainly be history Thursday night after commissioners sign off on a new budget.
But the county won't be done wrestling with rising healthcare costs.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez's administration has warned employee unions that, beginning Jan. 1, health-insurance premiums for their dependents, such as spouses and children, will rise 20 percent. The hikes could be avoided, the administration says, if the unions agree to "redesign" the health-insurance plan to raise co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs.
Under the most popular plan the county offers, the co-pay to see a primary-care doctor would increase to $15 from $10. The co-pay to see a specialist would rise to $30 from $10. And a 30-day supply of prescription drugs would go up to $15 from $10.
The alternative for that same plan: hiking bi-weekly premiums for family coverage to $345 from $288.
Under either scenario, the county would continue paying HMO premiums for its employees.
Regardless of what happens with the insurance plans, employees will likely get some good news: When the new budget year begins Oct. 1, they will probably no longer be required to contribute an additional 4 percent of their base pay toward healthcare costs. A narrow majority of commissioners imposed that concession in January, on top of the 5 percent of their pay that employees already contribute toward healthcare.
That 20 percent comprises a nearly 12-percent increase in healthcare costs last year and an 8 percent increase this year. The county agreed not to raise premiums last year -- but that was a one-year deal, Gimenez said. Now, the county needs to make up for that by passing along last year's and this year's higher costs to employees, in the form of 20-percent dependent premium hikes.
"The single people will be subsidizing the family premiums, which I don't really see that there's a fairness there," Blackman said. The police union has yet to tell the county if it will bring the proposal to a vote. Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera said the union has asked the county for more information to verify its healthcare cost estimates.
"We walked out of there with more questions than answers," Rivera said of the PBA's meeting with the county's healthcare consultants. "If we're satisfied with what we get, we will certainly let the members make the choice."
LA Mayor Villaraigosa Defends Pension Reform Plan Against Union Opposition
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began his push for city pension reform Wednesday. The city of LA is trying to reduce its pension obligation by cutting benefits for new employees. Conan Nolan reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2012.
Even as city worker unions threatened to sue over a Los Angeles pension reform plan for unveiled this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defended his administration's proposal.
The plan, which would move the retirement age for new workers from 55 to 65 and would reduce the amount of final compensation, would save taxpayers up to $4 billion over 30 years, the mayor said.
The "common-sense plan" is "the next step of putting Los Angeles back toward a more sustainable, long-term fiscal path," Villaraigosa said.
The plan includes:
capping the maximum retirement benefit at 75 percent of final compensation, instead of the 100 percent currently allowed;
limiting cost-of-living increases to 2 percent;
increasing employee contributions to benefits;
eliminating retiree health care benefits for dependents; and
using a three-year average to calculate benefits to prevent pension "spiking."
Additionally, benefit amounts currently calculated at 2.16 percent of salary times the number of years worked would be reduced to a 2 percent rate.
"Every dollar that we save on pensions today is a dollar that we can spend on other city services," Englander said.
City unions have been quick opposed to the proposal, with a court fight not out of the question.
"This proposed ordinance is unsound and unlawful," said Service Employees International Union Local 721 President Bob Schoonover. "It's a full embrace of the CAO's vacuous plan to create a second tier in city worker pensions, which is a frontal attack on all city workers, future and present."
Ron DeLord has more than 40 years of service as a police union official at the local and state level. He is recognized as one of the leading police union contract negotiators in the United States. He has negotiated more than 150 police contracts. Ron is the co-author of six published books - two on police power, politics and confrontation, two on interested-based bargaining, and two on the history of Texas Lawmen. He has been on the guest faculty at the Harvard Law School since 1993 for the Harvard Trade Union Program and two Police Union Leadership Programs. He has conducted more than 50 seminars on public sector union leadership, power, organization, media and political action.
Ronald G. DeLord PLLC Attorney at Law
30320 La Quinta Dr Georgetown, TX 78628-1171
Tel. (512) 461-9420
Email - ron@rondelord.com Web - www.rondelord.com Blog - www.rondelord.com/gospelaccordingtodelord
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Chicago Teachers Strike: Why we need to support it
Pasted below is a news story from the publication InTheseTimes. Here's a paragraph from the story describing the crux of the conflict, something that police associations can certainly relate to with the huge effort underway to privatize all aspects of the public sector including education and public safety.
Link to story: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11497-chicago-teachers-strike-for-fair-contract-but-really-for-better-schools
But at its heart, the strike is over the union's deep opposition to what it calls a "corporate reform agenda" that pursues a competitive or punitive relationship with teachers, rather than a collaborative one. Examples include blaming teachers and unions for educational shortcomings, promoting private but publicly financed charter schools, focusing on high-stakes tests and tying pay to merit. The Chicago Teachers Union has instead pushed for smaller classes, enriched curriculum, better supplies and facilities, fairer and fuller funding (including the return of some public revenue long diverted into "TIFs" to subsidize developers), more counselors and support staff, respect for teacher professionalism, and a bigger say for teachers in their schools.
Chicago Teachers Strike for Fair Contract (but Really for Better Schools)
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 14:06 By David Moberg, In These Times | Report
Early this morning, Chicago teachers organized picket lines at all entrances to William H. Ray Elementary School in Hyde Park on the city's South Side. They were joined by dozens of students, parents and local community residents. It was the first day in 25 years that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)--the first teachers union in the country--had gone out on strike, and picketers banged drums, gobbled doughnuts, waved at passing motorists (and the driver of a passing waste truck), and chanted with militant cheeriness: "Lies and tricks will not divide/parents and teachers side by side."
Late Sunday night, the union leaders decided that, despite some progress in the nearly year-long contract negotiations, the school board had failed to satisfy the union's 29,000 teachers and support staff in several key areas.
CTU president Karen Lewis, leader of an internal reform movement that took the union's top offices in 2010, said the offer from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) did not preserve medical benefits and did not provide adequate job security in a system thrown into turmoil by school closures and charter school openings. CTU also objects to a new system for evaluating teachers that relies heavily on improvement in student test scores.
Lewis said the two sides are not far apart on the issue of pay, including compensation for a longer day that CPS imposed this year. Sources differ as to the amounts on the table: Mayor Emanuel said the board offered a 16 percent raise over four years; board president David Vitale described the proposal as 3 percent in the first year, then 2 percent each of three following years; and the CTU characterized neither its latest proposal nor the CPS response.
But at its heart, the strike is over the union's deep opposition to what it calls a "corporate reform agenda" that pursues a competitive or punitive relationship with teachers, rather than a collaborative one. Examples include blaming teachers and unions for educational shortcomings, promoting private but publicly financed charter schools, focusing on high-stakes tests and tying pay to merit.
CTU has instead pushed for smaller classes, enriched curriculum, better supplies and facilities, fairer and fuller funding (including the return of some public revenue long diverted into "TIFs" to subsidize developers), more counselors and support staff, respect for teacher professionalism, and a bigger say for teachers in their schools.
That clash puts the union at odds with CPS, the mayor and President Obama--whose education secretary, Arne Duncan, boosted the corporate-reform agenda as former Mayor Richard M. Daley's school superintendent. It also represents a more forceful rejection of such reforms than espoused by the national union, which nonetheless supports the CTU strike.
Unfortunately, CTU's leaders have not pierced effectively through the cloud of misinformation coming from the mayor and allies (including groups with a financial stake in charter schools) to make clear what they're for and against. Also, a new state law limits the union's ability to negotiate many of the most important policy issues.
But Emanuel's unpopularity among unions has lifted union support, including backing from UNITE-HERE members working in the school lunchrooms, who offered to join teacher picket lines even though the food workers' earlier negotiation of a contract precludes their joining the walkout.
Emanuel said the strike was unnecessary, unwanted (by him), and wrong--"a strike of choice." But one teacher tells In These Times it was virtually inevitable given Emanuel's insulting, disrespectful attitude towards teachers and the union, his unilateral imposition of major changes without consultation and his hostility towards most public schools. I asked John Cusick, a union delegate who has taught fifth grade for 12 years at Ray School, what he thought of Emanuel calling teachers' action a "choice," not a necessity. After a long pause, he said, "We don't have a lot of choices in CPS. We had no input into the longer school day. We're given no input into how the day is structured. We're given no input into whether the barrage of testing our students are undergoing makes sense. We have no choice in electing a school board. That's a choice we'd like to have."
Instead of experienced professionals having a voice, the board consists of rich people such as billionaire hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, whose businesses benefit from TIF funds that divert money from schools. Meanwhile, she sent her children to the private University of Chicago Lab School (as Emanuel now does), which she praises for its generous, well-appointed facilities. Lab is a few blocks from Ray (a fine public school that my kids attended), but worlds apart in amenities.
"We'd like to be involved in discussing class size," Cusick adds. "We'd also like more social workers and youth guidance counselors. We'd like to be funded to the hilt like [the rich northern suburb of] Winnetka. Last year Ray had classes with as many as 41 students. Let's have those choices."
And beyond those strictly educational policy choices, there are the critical environmental issues--violence and poverty. "We do think there's a crisis in American education," Cusick says, "and it has to do with poverty, but officials offer charter schools. In ten years they'll realize charter schools don't solve the problem. We don't need quick fixes. We need long-term commitment and investment."
Originally published at InTheseTimes.com
Link to story: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11497-chicago-teachers-strike-for-fair-contract-but-really-for-better-schools
But at its heart, the strike is over the union's deep opposition to what it calls a "corporate reform agenda" that pursues a competitive or punitive relationship with teachers, rather than a collaborative one. Examples include blaming teachers and unions for educational shortcomings, promoting private but publicly financed charter schools, focusing on high-stakes tests and tying pay to merit. The Chicago Teachers Union has instead pushed for smaller classes, enriched curriculum, better supplies and facilities, fairer and fuller funding (including the return of some public revenue long diverted into "TIFs" to subsidize developers), more counselors and support staff, respect for teacher professionalism, and a bigger say for teachers in their schools.
Chicago Teachers Strike for Fair Contract (but Really for Better Schools)
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 14:06 By David Moberg, In These Times | Report
Early this morning, Chicago teachers organized picket lines at all entrances to William H. Ray Elementary School in Hyde Park on the city's South Side. They were joined by dozens of students, parents and local community residents. It was the first day in 25 years that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)--the first teachers union in the country--had gone out on strike, and picketers banged drums, gobbled doughnuts, waved at passing motorists (and the driver of a passing waste truck), and chanted with militant cheeriness: "Lies and tricks will not divide/parents and teachers side by side."
Late Sunday night, the union leaders decided that, despite some progress in the nearly year-long contract negotiations, the school board had failed to satisfy the union's 29,000 teachers and support staff in several key areas.
CTU president Karen Lewis, leader of an internal reform movement that took the union's top offices in 2010, said the offer from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) did not preserve medical benefits and did not provide adequate job security in a system thrown into turmoil by school closures and charter school openings. CTU also objects to a new system for evaluating teachers that relies heavily on improvement in student test scores.
Lewis said the two sides are not far apart on the issue of pay, including compensation for a longer day that CPS imposed this year. Sources differ as to the amounts on the table: Mayor Emanuel said the board offered a 16 percent raise over four years; board president David Vitale described the proposal as 3 percent in the first year, then 2 percent each of three following years; and the CTU characterized neither its latest proposal nor the CPS response.
But at its heart, the strike is over the union's deep opposition to what it calls a "corporate reform agenda" that pursues a competitive or punitive relationship with teachers, rather than a collaborative one. Examples include blaming teachers and unions for educational shortcomings, promoting private but publicly financed charter schools, focusing on high-stakes tests and tying pay to merit.
CTU has instead pushed for smaller classes, enriched curriculum, better supplies and facilities, fairer and fuller funding (including the return of some public revenue long diverted into "TIFs" to subsidize developers), more counselors and support staff, respect for teacher professionalism, and a bigger say for teachers in their schools.
That clash puts the union at odds with CPS, the mayor and President Obama--whose education secretary, Arne Duncan, boosted the corporate-reform agenda as former Mayor Richard M. Daley's school superintendent. It also represents a more forceful rejection of such reforms than espoused by the national union, which nonetheless supports the CTU strike.
Unfortunately, CTU's leaders have not pierced effectively through the cloud of misinformation coming from the mayor and allies (including groups with a financial stake in charter schools) to make clear what they're for and against. Also, a new state law limits the union's ability to negotiate many of the most important policy issues.
But Emanuel's unpopularity among unions has lifted union support, including backing from UNITE-HERE members working in the school lunchrooms, who offered to join teacher picket lines even though the food workers' earlier negotiation of a contract precludes their joining the walkout.
Emanuel said the strike was unnecessary, unwanted (by him), and wrong--"a strike of choice." But one teacher tells In These Times it was virtually inevitable given Emanuel's insulting, disrespectful attitude towards teachers and the union, his unilateral imposition of major changes without consultation and his hostility towards most public schools. I asked John Cusick, a union delegate who has taught fifth grade for 12 years at Ray School, what he thought of Emanuel calling teachers' action a "choice," not a necessity. After a long pause, he said, "We don't have a lot of choices in CPS. We had no input into the longer school day. We're given no input into how the day is structured. We're given no input into whether the barrage of testing our students are undergoing makes sense. We have no choice in electing a school board. That's a choice we'd like to have."
Instead of experienced professionals having a voice, the board consists of rich people such as billionaire hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, whose businesses benefit from TIF funds that divert money from schools. Meanwhile, she sent her children to the private University of Chicago Lab School (as Emanuel now does), which she praises for its generous, well-appointed facilities. Lab is a few blocks from Ray (a fine public school that my kids attended), but worlds apart in amenities.
"We'd like to be involved in discussing class size," Cusick adds. "We'd also like more social workers and youth guidance counselors. We'd like to be funded to the hilt like [the rich northern suburb of] Winnetka. Last year Ray had classes with as many as 41 students. Let's have those choices."
And beyond those strictly educational policy choices, there are the critical environmental issues--violence and poverty. "We do think there's a crisis in American education," Cusick says, "and it has to do with poverty, but officials offer charter schools. In ten years they'll realize charter schools don't solve the problem. We don't need quick fixes. We need long-term commitment and investment."
Originally published at InTheseTimes.com
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Stockton bankruptcy based on lies by Ron York
Stockton, California Bankrupt? It's A Lie!
by Ron York
June 28, 2012
Last night the city council voted to file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. There is just one problem - Stockton is not bankrupt. Looking at the latest audited financial statement (6-30-10) I found the following significant facts:
The governmental funds had a net operating loss of $3,503,000 on $283,726,000 in revenue for FYE 6-30-10 - 1.25%. That is pretty benign stuff.
The General Fund had a net operating loss of $5,058,000 on $177,784,000 in revenue. $4,793,000 of the total loss was due to some "bean counter" bookkeeping entries.
Since 2001, the governmental funds have grown at an internal rate of 2.37%. That rate is respectable when compared with a 4% growth rate by the national economy and an inflation rate of 2.5% over the same period.
In 2001, total revenue was $229,777,000. For 2010, revenue was $283,726,000.
The General Fund had a unrestricted fund balance equal to 4.28% of annual revenue. That is low, but workable.
Sure revenue for 2010 is down from the peak of $360,201 in 2007. Compare that with 2001 - a 57% increase in just six years. Does anyone really think that is the normal growth rate.
Forget using the accrual balance sheet to make a case for going into the drink. It is made with a bunch of large manufactured numbers for infrastructure and associated depreciation. I have more confidence in Enron's balance sheet. At least they had real depreciation schedules.
The trail for Stockton's journey to bankruptcy was paved by Vallejo, which was not really bankrupt either. That's right, Vallejo was not bankrupt in 2008. They were just pissed off. Vallejo needed a workout consultant, not bankruptcy lawyers. The same is true today in Stockton.
Bankruptcy has a lot of appeal. A newspaper editor once said "Doctors bury their mistakes. Newspapers print their mistakes." With bankruptcy, a city gets to have their mistakes reincarnated, which can then be redacted.
The City of Stockton has engaged Marc Levinson, Vallejo's bankruptcy attorney. Marc is a great guy and a good lawyer, with a line of b.s. comparable to Johnny Cochran or David Boies. I sure hope the employees hire a worthy opponent.
During the Vallejo bankruptcy proceeding, the employees used The Harvey Rose Firm as their financial experts. Marc really sucker punched Roger Mialocq, the lead expert, who was playing it straight, as an expert should. I would like to see a rematch between these two. This time it would be like the Battle of Little Big Horn, with Roger and an army of consultants coming over the ridge, that ends with Goldilocks Levinson laying on the battlefield.
In the end, I do not think the truth really matters. Everyone is caught up in the depression mentality. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Those preaching conventional wisdom say Stockton and other California cities are bankrupt and they are not going to let the facts get in the way, because in their hearts they know they are right. It is funny that these same prophets do not find it strange that the city has not released its 2011 audit.
I did a little snooping around to see what I could find. Holy Cow! The 1% sales tax distribution from the state was up 3% for FYE 2011 and up 10% for the current year. That looks like a depression me. "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime."
Once a family had an adult son who had some real mental problems - he thought he was a chicken. When asked by a neighbor why they had not gotten help for their son, the father said they needed the eggs.
The Tea Party needs the eggs.
Ron York if the founder of policepay.net. He can be reached at: rjynegotiator@gmail.com
by Ron York
June 28, 2012
Last night the city council voted to file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy. There is just one problem - Stockton is not bankrupt. Looking at the latest audited financial statement (6-30-10) I found the following significant facts:
The governmental funds had a net operating loss of $3,503,000 on $283,726,000 in revenue for FYE 6-30-10 - 1.25%. That is pretty benign stuff.
The General Fund had a net operating loss of $5,058,000 on $177,784,000 in revenue. $4,793,000 of the total loss was due to some "bean counter" bookkeeping entries.
Since 2001, the governmental funds have grown at an internal rate of 2.37%. That rate is respectable when compared with a 4% growth rate by the national economy and an inflation rate of 2.5% over the same period.
In 2001, total revenue was $229,777,000. For 2010, revenue was $283,726,000.
The General Fund had a unrestricted fund balance equal to 4.28% of annual revenue. That is low, but workable.
Sure revenue for 2010 is down from the peak of $360,201 in 2007. Compare that with 2001 - a 57% increase in just six years. Does anyone really think that is the normal growth rate.
Forget using the accrual balance sheet to make a case for going into the drink. It is made with a bunch of large manufactured numbers for infrastructure and associated depreciation. I have more confidence in Enron's balance sheet. At least they had real depreciation schedules.
The trail for Stockton's journey to bankruptcy was paved by Vallejo, which was not really bankrupt either. That's right, Vallejo was not bankrupt in 2008. They were just pissed off. Vallejo needed a workout consultant, not bankruptcy lawyers. The same is true today in Stockton.
Bankruptcy has a lot of appeal. A newspaper editor once said "Doctors bury their mistakes. Newspapers print their mistakes." With bankruptcy, a city gets to have their mistakes reincarnated, which can then be redacted.
The City of Stockton has engaged Marc Levinson, Vallejo's bankruptcy attorney. Marc is a great guy and a good lawyer, with a line of b.s. comparable to Johnny Cochran or David Boies. I sure hope the employees hire a worthy opponent.
During the Vallejo bankruptcy proceeding, the employees used The Harvey Rose Firm as their financial experts. Marc really sucker punched Roger Mialocq, the lead expert, who was playing it straight, as an expert should. I would like to see a rematch between these two. This time it would be like the Battle of Little Big Horn, with Roger and an army of consultants coming over the ridge, that ends with Goldilocks Levinson laying on the battlefield.
In the end, I do not think the truth really matters. Everyone is caught up in the depression mentality. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Those preaching conventional wisdom say Stockton and other California cities are bankrupt and they are not going to let the facts get in the way, because in their hearts they know they are right. It is funny that these same prophets do not find it strange that the city has not released its 2011 audit.
I did a little snooping around to see what I could find. Holy Cow! The 1% sales tax distribution from the state was up 3% for FYE 2011 and up 10% for the current year. That looks like a depression me. "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime."
Once a family had an adult son who had some real mental problems - he thought he was a chicken. When asked by a neighbor why they had not gotten help for their son, the father said they needed the eggs.
The Tea Party needs the eggs.
Ron York if the founder of policepay.net. He can be reached at: rjynegotiator@gmail.com
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
If Ballot measure passes it will be a disaster for cops
THE EPICENTER: PENSIONS UNDER ATTACK For those of you who do not know me, my name is Jim Unland and I am the current president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association. I want to introduce you to the first installment of The Epicenter. All of our associations have been on the defensive and have seen attacks on our benefits. Here in San Jose, we have unfortunately found ourselves at the epicenter of the pension reform battle. I will use this communication tool to send you updates about our fight. If you would like to receive these updates, email me at junland@sjpoa.com. I will do my best to keep these messages succinct, relevant and timely. Make no mistake - our fight is your fight. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is on a mission to radically change the way in which police officers and other public sector workers are compensated. His crusade has brought him national and international attention. All eyes are upon him to see if he can create a roadmap around our vested rights. If he succeeds, others will copy his methods. Your future and ours rests on beating back his relentless pursuit to destroy what has been promised us. Mayor Reed and his allies on the San Jose City Council have voted to place a ballot measure before the voters of our city this June. If it passes and is implemented, San Jose police officers would see their contributions to retirement costs rise to more than 40% of their salary. COLA's could be suspended. Disability retirements would become a thing of the past. With language so restrictive, an officer who is shot and paralyzed would not be eligible for a disability retirement. To add insult to injury, that same officer would not even be guaranteed other city employment. In essence, he could be fired for having been shot and paralyzed. — Jim Unland President San Jose Police Officers’ Association junland@sjpoa.com
Monday, May 7, 2012
Good story on complexities of working undercover
New York Times
Police Working Under Cover, and Under Strain
By AL BAKER and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
After a decade spent working the bottom levels of New York’s drug world,
Margaret Sasso, an undercover police officer, believed she had done and
seen enough. The thought of entering more crack dens made her numb.
She sought a hardship transfer in August, but nothing came of it.
In March, as she sat in her car before a shift, she began swallowing
prescribed muscle relaxants. The police found her the next day,
unconscious from what she said was a failed suicide attempt.
“I just wanted to rest,” Detective Sasso, 43, said in a recent
interview, after her release from a hospital. “Get away from everything
and just rest.”
Detective Sasso’s suicide attempt was seen by other detectives as a
potent, if extreme, illustration of the difficulties plaguing undercover
units at a time when the New York Police Department’s head count is diminished, but the demand for arrests has never been higher.
Of the 120 or so undercover officers in the Organized Crime Control
Bureau, which runs most of the department’s undercover operations, there
is widespread dissatisfaction among the ranks, according to interviews
with nearly a dozen current or recently retired detectives, including
several assigned to undercover units.
About 40 undercover officers or detectives have pending requests to be
transferred out, said one police official in Brooklyn who works with
undercover officers, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Michael J. Palladino, the head of the detectives’ union, said, “Once you’re in, there’s no way out.”
The job generally attracts young officers with three to five years of
experience. After an interview process, which involves a role-playing
component, applicants undergo a month of training, including crash
courses on street drugs, and lessons on how to affect the mannerisms of
an addict.
Most candidates tend to be black or Hispanic; police officials say that
many minority drug dealers are more likely to suspect white customers of
being undercover officers. Detective Sasso is white.
The work is not glamorous. Their efforts are aimed at those who sell
drugs or guns, making their jobs inherently dangerous.
They are constantly at risk of being robbed, and some have been killed
by the suspects they hoped to arrest; they even face the risk of being
shot by fellow officers who occasionally mistake them for armed
criminals.
In 1994, a white off-duty officer, Peter Del-Debbio, mistakenly shot
Desmond Robinson, a black officer who was working in a plainclothes
unit, at a subway station in Manhattan. In 1998, Sean Carrington, an
undercover detective, was killed
in a Bronx drug operation. In 2003, two undercover detectives with the
Firearms Investigation Unit, James V. Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews, were executed by a man they believed was going to sell them guns on Staten Island.
Detectives Carrington, Nemorin and Andrews were also black —
underscoring the racial disparity between those who work under cover and
their supervisors.
“Who are the undercover officers?” Mr. Palladino said. “Hard-working
minority men and women who grew up in some of the toughest neighborhoods
in the city who chose to come into the N.Y.P.D., to try to make a difference. And the N.Y.P.D. uses them.”
In the small but elite firearms unit, which accepts only experienced
undercover officers, most of whom intend to make a career out of that
kind of work, there has not been a white undercover officer in several
years, according to three former detectives from the unit. They say that
the supervisors are overwhelmingly white.
The organization 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care has long
discouraged minority officers from volunteering for undercover
assignments — exacerbating the shortage of new undercover detectives;
only about a dozen or so are trained each year, one investigator said.
The pressures of undercover work, and the desire to escape it, hung in the periphery of the 2006 fatal police shooting of Sean Bell in Queens.
Gescard F. Isnora,
the undercover detective who fired the first of the 50 police bullets
at Mr. Bell’s vehicle, testified in a departmental trial that three
months before the Bell shooting, he had sought to leave undercover work,
even seeking a demotion to return to patrol. He explained at his trial,
held last year, how two recent undercover operations had ended
violently — one with his partner shooting at a man — and he acknowledged
not wanting to buy drugs anymore.
Mr. Isnora was fired because he was found to have acted improperly in the Bell shooting.
Undercover assignments come with the promise of a detective’s gold
shield within 18 months, and a transfer out of undercover work after
another 18 months, Mr. Palladino said. But some undercover officers end
up working several years beyond that before being allowed to “flip,”
police parlance for leaving undercover work.
Mr. Palladino is now lobbying state legislators in Albany to create a
cap on the number of years that officers spend under cover.
Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Detectives said that besides low morale and burnout, another downside of
such a long stint was an increased chance of being recognized.
“There are only a certain amount of times you can go to the same housing projects,” one Brooklyn detective said.
Debra Lawson, another detective who worked in the firearms unit, said
that staffing shortages led supervisors to ask her to switch off between
working as an undercover “ghost,” who accompanies the undercover
officer or hangs back down the street, and having other assignments in
which she might wear a police raid jacket. Straddling both roles,
sometimes within a single day, she said, put her and the officers she
worked with in danger of being recognized.
Similarly, at one firearms unit in Brooklyn, undercover officers work
from a busy police station rather than a covert location, said two
retired detectives, who believe the arrangement puts them at risk of
being identified as police officers.
On the streets, undercover officers are supposed to be supported by the
“ghost” officer and by a backup team of six officers. But the backup
team is often short-staffed, said Detective Lawson, who has filed a
lawsuit accusing supervisors of having “consistently falsified” the
written tactical plans to make it seem as if the undercover operations
were fully staffed.
“I couldn’t depend on the field team,” she said.
In interviews, several detectives who had worked in the firearms unit
said they wanted the option of working in larger undercover teams,
rather than in pairs, saying the criminals they meet travel in large
groups.
Mr. Palladino is also pressing for lawmakers to force the department to
replace the transmitters that undercover officers use as a hidden
lifeline to a backup team. The transmitters have been criticized as
unreliable and outdated; some that were in use in recent years resembled
the hip-worn beepers popular two decades ago, Detective Sasso said.
One undercover officer, upset that his transmissions were apparently
unheard by the backup team, recently came out of a Brooklyn operation
saying: “Where were you guys? They put a knife to my neck,” the Brooklyn
official said. Another officer said that in an operation his code word —
meant to alert backup officers into action — went unheard, and he had
to accede to a dealer’s demands that he smoke crack. He said he had
heard of similar episodes from colleagues.
Detective Sasso, a Polish immigrant, joined the force in 1993. Her first
attempt to buy drugs as an undercover officer ended in rejection, she
recalled recently, probably because she was too polite: her opening
words to the dealer were “excuse me.” She eventually learned to play the
role of an addict after seeking advice from a Brighton Beach
prostitute, discovering she had a knack for the undercover work. Since
then, she has been “walking miles for a vial,” slang for so called
buy-and-bust work.
She had an array of answers for dealers who demanded that she smoke
crack to prove she was not a cop. Her most inspired response, she said,
was to tell one dealer how her dead grandmother was watching through his
eyes. She could therefore not smoke crack in front of him.
“How many people can tell you they do what I actually did?” Detective
Sasso said about her career. “I was very proud of myself. And I enjoyed
it.”
That changed in late 2010, after her parents died in a car accident.
Then her marriage began to fall apart. A lawyer told her she risked
losing custody of her children because of the irregular hours of
undercover narcotics work. In August, she sought a transfer to prisoner
intake, an unpopular job, for its steady schedule. Since her suicide
attempt in March, she has heard that the department approved her
transfer.
But, in April, on her first day back to work after her suicide attempt,
the department ordered her to attend a month of inpatient drug
counseling in Pennsylvania. She said addiction was not one of her
problems.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Temple University uses Brave Hearts in the classroom
A criminal justice training program that teaches policing with heart
by James F. Duffy
Temple University Ambler
Cynthia Brown didn’t set out to put the lives and experiences of police officers onto the printed page.
After working in a community policing program in Boston in the 1970’s — she initially thought she was taking a job at a museum — she felt a “strong obligation” to shine a spotlight on what officers actually go through on the job through their personal stories; the triumphs, tragedies and everything in between.
“When I worked in the station in Boston, I got to know everyone and I grew to love them all. I saw more acts of human kindness in some very intense circumstances,” said Brown, who, since that initial experience in Boston, has been working with and advocating for police and law enforcement for more than 30 years and is publisher of American Police Beat, the nation’s largest magazine for and about the law enforcement community.
“I’ve had the good fortune to meet and get to know members of law enforcement for most of my life. I don’t think most people have a clue what police officers go through on our behalf to keep us safe.”
With her book Brave Hearts: Extraordinary Stories of Pride, Pain and Courage, published in 2010, Brown sought to “change minds about law enforcement” through the stories of 15 New York City police officers. The book provides an up close, intimate perspective of all facets of law enforcement including the intricacies of undercover work; homicide and vice; SWAT; and utilizing technology to solve crime.
The stories told are sweeping in scope from intelligence gathering to stop another terrorist attack to searching for survivors in the aftermath of 9/11 to tracking a serial killer to “the myriad of everyday crime responded to by the backbone of any law enforcement agency — the patrol force.”
“The stories are universal. The main thing of it is that every single person in the book — despite the problems they may have faced — were so proud of what they do,” Brown said. “They have a life of meaning through their life of service. Every one of them expressed that.”
Just as Brown didn’t initially set out to change the perception the general public might have about law enforcement, she didn’t initially anticipate the academic applications of her book. Police academies across the country, however, immediately saw its enormous potential to help educate the next generation of law enforcement.
The Temple University Municipal Police Academy, offered at Temple University Ambler, is one of the first to incorporate Brave Hearts into its curriculum. The Philadelphia Police Department and Indiana Law Enforcement Academy are also using the book in the classroom and other academies are expected to soon follow.
“Brave Hearts is a compendium of incidents from officers in the field that faithfully and accurately describes so many different types of the work that police officers do. These are stories of successful officers with a strong work ethic and the courage to risk their own physical and mental health to protect and serve,” said Temple University Municipal Police Academy Director Robert Deegan. “It talks about the stress that officers are involved in, the frustrating nature of criminal investigation, the endless paperwork, dealing with people at their worst, but it also talks about the rewards — doing your work well and positively impacting people and communities.”
As an unvarnished look at the lives of police officers, Deegan said Brave Hearts is an excellent tool to help academy cadets think about and reflect on the law enforcement profession.”
“It’s one thing for an instructor to talk about what they are getting into. It’s another to see it in print, to read about the experiences of officers in the field,” he said. “Each cadet receives a copy of the book and they are asked to prepare a report based on their findings and interpretations. Each chapter opens up a dialogue and encourages discussion. It provides insight into the culture of law enforcement through detailed and thought-provoking questions.”
When police academies began to express interest in using Brave Hearts as a teaching tool, Brown developed a chapter-by-chapter lesson plan.
“I designed questions based on the chapters that really have no right or wrong answers. It encourages the cadets to think and come up with their own solutions to the various problems they’ll face day-to-day as an officer,” she said. “When I wrote Brave Hearts, I never expected it would be used to provide this sort of inspiration in the classroom, but I do hope it inspires and encourages aspiration. For young people just going on the job, I think it reinforces their choice of career and all of the things that you can do in the profession.”
Deegan said Brave Hearts helps the academy develop cadets who are “graduating with a better understanding of the career they are entering into.”
“I think this is a text that the Criminal Justice program at Temple could also effectively use in the classroom,” he said. “The more you know about what you are getting involved in, the more prepared you are to deal with the problems and the stresses, the better the officer.”
Temple began offering police academy training in 1968. The academy is state certified by the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission and is attended by police recruits from throughout Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties, and in some cases well beyond. All of the Academy’s faculty are either active or retired full-time law enforcement practitioners including police officers, deputy sheriffs, assistant district attorneys, and members of the judiciary.
The Summer 2012 Temple University Municipal Police Academy at the Ambler Campus begins in May. Individuals interested in applying may contact Robert Deegan at 267-468-8605, 215-204-9028 or deeganr@temple.edu or visit www.temple.edu/cjtp, where the application and information are available online.
Criminal Justice Training Programs (CJTP), a division of the Temple University Department of Criminal Justice, is a leader in the training of Pennsylvania’s criminal justice practitioners. From the Temple University Police Academy and the Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Program to in-service police training, to curriculum development for Deputy Sheriffs, to in-service training for Deputy Sheriff’s and basic and in-service training for Constables, the Ambler Campus program is one of the busiest law enforcement training centers in the state. CJTP is also one of two programs in the country to provide ProRanger training for the National Park Service. For more information, visit www.temple.edu/cjtp.
by James F. Duffy
Temple University Ambler
Cynthia Brown didn’t set out to put the lives and experiences of police officers onto the printed page.
After working in a community policing program in Boston in the 1970’s — she initially thought she was taking a job at a museum — she felt a “strong obligation” to shine a spotlight on what officers actually go through on the job through their personal stories; the triumphs, tragedies and everything in between.
“When I worked in the station in Boston, I got to know everyone and I grew to love them all. I saw more acts of human kindness in some very intense circumstances,” said Brown, who, since that initial experience in Boston, has been working with and advocating for police and law enforcement for more than 30 years and is publisher of American Police Beat, the nation’s largest magazine for and about the law enforcement community.
“I’ve had the good fortune to meet and get to know members of law enforcement for most of my life. I don’t think most people have a clue what police officers go through on our behalf to keep us safe.”
With her book Brave Hearts: Extraordinary Stories of Pride, Pain and Courage, published in 2010, Brown sought to “change minds about law enforcement” through the stories of 15 New York City police officers. The book provides an up close, intimate perspective of all facets of law enforcement including the intricacies of undercover work; homicide and vice; SWAT; and utilizing technology to solve crime.
The stories told are sweeping in scope from intelligence gathering to stop another terrorist attack to searching for survivors in the aftermath of 9/11 to tracking a serial killer to “the myriad of everyday crime responded to by the backbone of any law enforcement agency — the patrol force.”
“The stories are universal. The main thing of it is that every single person in the book — despite the problems they may have faced — were so proud of what they do,” Brown said. “They have a life of meaning through their life of service. Every one of them expressed that.”
Just as Brown didn’t initially set out to change the perception the general public might have about law enforcement, she didn’t initially anticipate the academic applications of her book. Police academies across the country, however, immediately saw its enormous potential to help educate the next generation of law enforcement.
The Temple University Municipal Police Academy, offered at Temple University Ambler, is one of the first to incorporate Brave Hearts into its curriculum. The Philadelphia Police Department and Indiana Law Enforcement Academy are also using the book in the classroom and other academies are expected to soon follow.
“Brave Hearts is a compendium of incidents from officers in the field that faithfully and accurately describes so many different types of the work that police officers do. These are stories of successful officers with a strong work ethic and the courage to risk their own physical and mental health to protect and serve,” said Temple University Municipal Police Academy Director Robert Deegan. “It talks about the stress that officers are involved in, the frustrating nature of criminal investigation, the endless paperwork, dealing with people at their worst, but it also talks about the rewards — doing your work well and positively impacting people and communities.”
As an unvarnished look at the lives of police officers, Deegan said Brave Hearts is an excellent tool to help academy cadets think about and reflect on the law enforcement profession.”
“It’s one thing for an instructor to talk about what they are getting into. It’s another to see it in print, to read about the experiences of officers in the field,” he said. “Each cadet receives a copy of the book and they are asked to prepare a report based on their findings and interpretations. Each chapter opens up a dialogue and encourages discussion. It provides insight into the culture of law enforcement through detailed and thought-provoking questions.”
When police academies began to express interest in using Brave Hearts as a teaching tool, Brown developed a chapter-by-chapter lesson plan.
“I designed questions based on the chapters that really have no right or wrong answers. It encourages the cadets to think and come up with their own solutions to the various problems they’ll face day-to-day as an officer,” she said. “When I wrote Brave Hearts, I never expected it would be used to provide this sort of inspiration in the classroom, but I do hope it inspires and encourages aspiration. For young people just going on the job, I think it reinforces their choice of career and all of the things that you can do in the profession.”
Deegan said Brave Hearts helps the academy develop cadets who are “graduating with a better understanding of the career they are entering into.”
“I think this is a text that the Criminal Justice program at Temple could also effectively use in the classroom,” he said. “The more you know about what you are getting involved in, the more prepared you are to deal with the problems and the stresses, the better the officer.”
Temple began offering police academy training in 1968. The academy is state certified by the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission and is attended by police recruits from throughout Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties, and in some cases well beyond. All of the Academy’s faculty are either active or retired full-time law enforcement practitioners including police officers, deputy sheriffs, assistant district attorneys, and members of the judiciary.
The Summer 2012 Temple University Municipal Police Academy at the Ambler Campus begins in May. Individuals interested in applying may contact Robert Deegan at 267-468-8605, 215-204-9028 or deeganr@temple.edu or visit www.temple.edu/cjtp, where the application and information are available online.
Criminal Justice Training Programs (CJTP), a division of the Temple University Department of Criminal Justice, is a leader in the training of Pennsylvania’s criminal justice practitioners. From the Temple University Police Academy and the Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Program to in-service police training, to curriculum development for Deputy Sheriffs, to in-service training for Deputy Sheriff’s and basic and in-service training for Constables, the Ambler Campus program is one of the busiest law enforcement training centers in the state. CJTP is also one of two programs in the country to provide ProRanger training for the National Park Service. For more information, visit www.temple.edu/cjtp.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Downside of Twitter - Police Beware
Twitter Is All in Good Fun, Until It Isn’t
By DAVID CARR
I was going to tweet about Roland Martin’s suspension from CNN, but I decided to write a column about it instead. It’s safer this way.
Let me explain.
Big media companies love when their employees hit Twitter. After all, the short-form social media platform gives consumers direct access to media personalities, and along with it, an intimate connection that large media organizations, and the public, revel in.
Until something goes wrong. Roland Martin, who is paid to spout opinions on CNN, posted a controversial one on Twitter and now he is on suspension.
Like a lot of us, Mr. Martin watched the Super Bowl last Sunday and like many of us, he frolicked on Twitter as one more way of “watching” the big game, including commercials.
Mr. Martin, a syndicated newspaper columnist and a political analyst for CNN, got in trouble for writing, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl.”
Many, including gay advocacy groups, felt that the post advocated violence against homosexuals. Mr. Martin, a longtime hater of soccer, saw the immediate blowback on Twitter and said he was just mocking that sport, and nothing more. CNN also saw the outcry and suspended Mr. Martin indefinitely, saying in a news release that his post was “regrettable and offensive.”
This is not the first time someone who makes a living on one platform has been clobbered for making remarks on another. Octavia Nasr, senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs at CNN, was fired in 2010 for praising on Twitter Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Shiite cleric and inspirational figure for Hezbollah, after he died. That same year, an Arizona Daily Star reporter was fired for writing posts critical of colleagues and of the city of Tucson. The National Labor Relations Board said his dismissal was legal, in part because he had been warned by his employers not to post about work-related issues. Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos, was temporarily barred from MSNBC after getting in a Twitter dispute with Joe Scarborough on his show “Morning Joe.”
The list goes on, but you get the idea. The great thing about Twitter is it offers a friction-free route to an audience — if it can be thought, it can be posted. That’s also the bad thing about Twitter. For employees of almost any company, but especially media companies, it creates an ongoing tension: Yes, build your personal brand and, by proxy, bring social media luster to your employer, but do it in ways that are consumer-friendly and taste-appropriate. That kind of contemplativeness is not generally a Twitter impulse, as Mr. Martin found out.
Maybe he had too many nachos as he watched the game, or a few too many adult beverages, but when you are using Twitter as companion media to big events, be it the Oscars or the Super Bowl, it’s hard to resist the urge to say something sassy, transgressive or inappropriate.
It’s been a busy week for the intersection of Twitter and mainstream media. The BBC instructed its reporters to make sure they were breaking news on the BBC and not only on Twitter. Chris Hamilton, the BBC’s social media editor, said in a blog post, “We’ve been clear that our first priority remains ensuring that important information reaches BBC colleagues, and thus all our audiences, as quickly as possible — and certainly not after it reaches Twitter.”
Sky News took an even more aggressive Twitter stance in an e-mail to its staff last Tuesday: it banned the posting of stories from other media outlets, saying, “don’t tweet when it is not a story to which you have been assigned or a beat which you work.”
That is a sure-fire way for the Twitter accounts of Sky News employees to get little traction going forward.
In the current paradigm of media organizations and Twitter personalities, good reporters are expected to serve as a kind of wire service for information, and that includes providing links to important stories that they themselves may not have written. There is an expectation that good journalistic posters will be agnostic and even gracious about where information comes from. (Rupert Murdoch, a prolific Twitter user himself and someone who links to media whether he owns it or not, took to Twitter to say: “I have nothing to do with Sky News.” Well, other than owning a chunk of it, but why split digital hairs?)
Twitter’s speed and ease make it the world headquarters of snap judgments. From reading Mr. Martin’s post about Mr. Beckham and another one about a Patriots fan dressed all in pink, I saw little evidence per se that what he said was homophobic. So I could have joined the digital debate with something like: “Hey haters, cool it, let Martin be Martin. Let’s move on, people.”
But I didn’t, even though I am something of a free speech absolutist, partly because my Twitter bio identifies me as someone who writes about media for The New York Times. When I do post on Twitter, I often look at it through the eyes of my boss and his bosses and ask, is this congruent with the journalistic values of the institution — or, more succinctly, will it create a headache for my employer?
In the 15,000 or so tweets and retweets I have written, there are a few I’d like back and a few that probably made my betters uncomfortable, but mostly I’ve stayed out of the ditch. The rule at The Times is that there is no rule, but there is an expectation, as Philip B. Corbett, the standards editor for the paper, told me in an e-mail: “We expect Times journalists to behave like Times journalists, and they generally do.”
A Twitter post is not a small news story or a column. It is a thought burped up, generally without consideration. Most big media organizations mediate the discourse of their employees because that’s the business they are in. More and more, media outlets may be seen as a federation of voices, but there has to be a there there, a single unifying principle or value.
And even though I write a column, it has to be based on reporting. A funny thing happens when you report — things get more complicated, and less tweetable.
When I thought of writing about Mr. Martin’s suspension, I was inclined to believe it was a bone-headed move by a company drunk on correctness. I found some agreement from James Poniewozik at Time, who said, “Denounce the remarks, but as I’ve said before, I’d rather journalistic outlets, which are in the business of expression and ideas, err on the side of letting people screw up.” (He also said that Mr. Martin, who is fond of wearing ascots, should probably not point a crooked finger at the fashion choices of anyone else.)
But I also asked around among my friends — something I would never do as a precursor to tweeting — and got this response from Simon Dumenco, a longtime media observer and a Twitter savant.
He wrote in an e-mail: “The idea of joking that a ‘dude’ expressing a positive opinion about a David Beckham ad — which was really not about David Beckham the soccer star, but David Beckham the half-naked sex god — merits a smack-down? That’s actually not hilarious to me. It’s actually scary to me because it reminds me of social situations in my life where I’ve felt like it would be literally unsafe for people to learn I’m gay.”
Obviously, what seemed like harmless knuckleheaded banter to me landed very differently with people who generally share my values about free and unfettered discourse. I heard the same thing from other smart people who spend a lot of time on both reporting and Twitter.
So while I’m all for letting the tweets fall where they may, I’ve come to understand that just because a thought is tapped out on Twitter doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it seriously. Complicated, I know, and just the kind of nuanced conclusion that would never fit into 140 characters.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
American Police Beat editorial Feb 2012 issue
Congress ratings reach new low and it’s no wonder
American Police Beat
February 2012 edition
It’s official- the United States Congress has reached a new low. The most powerful law making body on the planet Earth has an abysmal five percent approval rating. You read that right. Just five people out of a hundred think that the House and Senate are doing their job.
For context, it’s important to note that Congress has never been particularly popular with the vast majority of Americans. People generally hate Congress but like their Congressman. But a public approval rating of five percent suggests something different is happening now. Or does it?
Sure a lot of people that got played in the real estate market would like to see at least one elected official take a stand and demand some hearings. Some might even expect to be thrown a bone or two in the way of a couple of Wall St. prosecutions- just for appearances sake even.
But the things that politicians do, the backroom deals, the outright lies, the blatant self-serving that is endemic to American politics, that really get under our skin are as old as the hills.
Consider the case of outgoing Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Known as a tough-on-crime conservative, Barbour touted the following accomplishments as his crime-fighting legacy:
“We’ve given our highway patrolmen record pay increases. We’ve passed the Castle law to make sure you can protect yourself in your home. We passed new laws to crack down on felons who commit crimes with guns and longer, mandatory sentences for gun crimes.”
Some people might get the impression based on such statements that Mr. Barbour actually cares about criminal justice and crime victims.
And he does care. Right up to the point where he gets friendly with convicted killers doing work on the governor’s mansion to get time off their sentences.
Pardoning one guy locked up on a possession with intent to distribute who’s changed his or her ways in the pokey is one thing.
Letting four killers walk because you found out they were actually really great guys when they were doing all that free work on the house is something else entirely.
In the executive order Barbour signed that freed the murderers, he wrote each "proved to be a diligent and dedicated workman."
It’s hard to imagine that made it any easier for the victim’s families who were notified over the phone by state corrections officials that the governor had decided to let the convicted killers of their loved ones walk. Barbour even said that springing killers that had failed to serve their time was a tradition in the Mississippi Governor’s office.
This is what drives people crazy about elected officials and the political class. It’s not just the fact that they don’t care about the people they’re elected to represent. It really has more to do with the fact that they don’t have a clue why anyone would be upset about pardoning four killers just because they felt like it.
American Police Beat
February 2012 edition
It’s official- the United States Congress has reached a new low. The most powerful law making body on the planet Earth has an abysmal five percent approval rating. You read that right. Just five people out of a hundred think that the House and Senate are doing their job.
For context, it’s important to note that Congress has never been particularly popular with the vast majority of Americans. People generally hate Congress but like their Congressman. But a public approval rating of five percent suggests something different is happening now. Or does it?
Sure a lot of people that got played in the real estate market would like to see at least one elected official take a stand and demand some hearings. Some might even expect to be thrown a bone or two in the way of a couple of Wall St. prosecutions- just for appearances sake even.
But the things that politicians do, the backroom deals, the outright lies, the blatant self-serving that is endemic to American politics, that really get under our skin are as old as the hills.
Consider the case of outgoing Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Known as a tough-on-crime conservative, Barbour touted the following accomplishments as his crime-fighting legacy:
“We’ve given our highway patrolmen record pay increases. We’ve passed the Castle law to make sure you can protect yourself in your home. We passed new laws to crack down on felons who commit crimes with guns and longer, mandatory sentences for gun crimes.”
Some people might get the impression based on such statements that Mr. Barbour actually cares about criminal justice and crime victims.
And he does care. Right up to the point where he gets friendly with convicted killers doing work on the governor’s mansion to get time off their sentences.
Pardoning one guy locked up on a possession with intent to distribute who’s changed his or her ways in the pokey is one thing.
Letting four killers walk because you found out they were actually really great guys when they were doing all that free work on the house is something else entirely.
In the executive order Barbour signed that freed the murderers, he wrote each "proved to be a diligent and dedicated workman."
It’s hard to imagine that made it any easier for the victim’s families who were notified over the phone by state corrections officials that the governor had decided to let the convicted killers of their loved ones walk. Barbour even said that springing killers that had failed to serve their time was a tradition in the Mississippi Governor’s office.
This is what drives people crazy about elected officials and the political class. It’s not just the fact that they don’t care about the people they’re elected to represent. It really has more to do with the fact that they don’t have a clue why anyone would be upset about pardoning four killers just because they felt like it.
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