Journal News at It Again

[DR104 141]

Looks like it was a slow week of news, so the Journal News is at it again. Going after Cops and Firefighters.

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2014/03/16/disability-laws-police-firefighters-westchester-rockland-putnam/6455629/

[SECTMB 612]

Yada Yada Yada, I got to the part where they say there are flaws in the system and there is no point reading further. As if NYS's self serving, corrupt legistature will ever address a problem and come up with a reasonably correct fix.

Years from now they can run the same story and just change the numbers and names to reflect the current reality.

[10512 214]

I cannot fault the Journal News for this article.

This is a broken system.

I say this and I am a member of the pension system but I am also a taxpayer.

The system is broken. But, as the previous poster states, the NYS Legislature will never correct this. The Legislature takes the definition of incompetance to new heights every time it meets. This, and almost every other problem NYS has will continue to fester.

[Jybehofd 85]

just looks like the state is fallowing up and expanding the investigation from a couple of weeks back when they arrest 20 or 30 or so FDNY and NYPD officers caught scamming the system and posting pics and stuff on facebook when they claimed they couldn't work and barely able to work or function

[gamewell45 258]

Taxpayers need to understand that if you want services, there comes a price tag attached to it. Those who stick their necks out to help/save others should be taken care of if they can no longer do the job due to an injury which occurs on the job or as a result of being on the job. Those who abuse the system, if caught, need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made an example of; it's people like them who give workers in the public sector a bad name in the first place.

I have no doubt that the system down the road will be reformed and depending on who is in office and their political leanings will ultimately determine what changes take place.

[Dinosaur 844]

But is moving a box of paper in communications or falling out of bed a "line of duty" injury?

[thebreeze 194]

I cannot fault the Journal News for this article.

This is a broken system.

I say this and I am a member of the pension system but I am also a taxpayer.

The system is broken. But, as the previous poster states, the NYS Legislature will never correct this. The Legislature takes the definition of incompetance to new heights every time it meets. This, and almost every other problem NYS has will continue to fester.

The system is broken because politicians rob from the funding of one system to help pay for others. They don't want to raise taxes for their pet projects and entitlements because then people would fight back against them. So instead they underfund pensions, use the money elsewhere, and then blame the unions, its all sleight of hand, they are trying to pull a fast one on everybody.

just looks like the state is fallowing up and expanding the investigation from a couple of weeks back when they arrest 20 or 30 or so FDNY and NYPD officers caught scamming the system and posting pics and stuff on facebook when they claimed they couldn't work and barely able to work or function

Just like everything else in the news, why say what these people do for a living, it sells papers that's why. You think retired cops and firemen are the only people who scam disability, social security, etc? I have a bridge to sell you then. You know how many people who never put a dime into the system or did an honest days work in their life are living a good life because they know how to scam the system? Why isn't there an article about the millions of every day regular people who scam the system? Its because no one would care because there wouldn't be a big tag word like cop or fireman attached, and because the newspapers and politicians don't want to alienate a huge section of the population who scam their way by every day. It's a witch hunt, why don't we try going after the people who abuse welfare, because there are millions of them, but only a few hundred cops and firemen, its a political number game, votes, that's where it all ends.

[thebreeze 194]

Taxpayers need to understand that if you want services, there comes a price tag attached to it. Those who stick their necks out to help/save others should be taken care of if they can no longer do the job due to an injury which occurs on the job or as a result of being on the job. Those who abuse the system, if caught, need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made an example of; it's people like them who give workers in the public sector a bad name in the first place.

I have no doubt that the system down the road will be reformed and depending on who is in office and their political leanings will ultimately determine what changes take place.

No changes will take place, because if you want to start reforming the system you are going to have to go all the way, and that means alienating a huge population of voters who politicians can very easily sway by offering increased welfare benefits at no cost to them. The cost is incurred by the minority of people who actually work and pay taxes, but they are the minority, and they have pride, so keep shoving the burden on them because they will take it, right?

[jd783 64]

What I took away from the article is the slow process that a disabilty claim is when it get up to the state. If the process was streamlined it would remove the burden from the cities and pass it to the state that would be easier to absorb. By all means this is not a solution

[gamewell45 258]

No changes will take place, because if you want to start reforming the system you are going to have to go all the way, and that means alienating a huge population of voters who politicians can very easily sway by offering increased welfare benefits at no cost to them. The cost is incurred by the minority of people who actually work and pay taxes, but they are the minority, and they have pride, so keep shoving the burden on them because they will take it, right?

Whatever changes take place will again depend on who is in office and their political leanings. I'm not sure what welfare benefits has to do with this topic or who works or who doesn't. Probably best you start a new thread?

[Jybehofd 85]

wow sounds like some people here might be in the article... lol hit some nerve with some. let them investigate. it might prevent those claming disability and then going deep sea fishing another idea about it when they get caught. if you are really injured and cant work it usually plays out the right way in cases like this.

[x635 4,066]

Having been involved in the process, it's extremely difficult to get benefits if you are legitimately injured.

I just wanted to mention there is a lawyer hired by several Westchester departments to fight 207A claims no matter what. She has even written a book on it, and has held lectures at the New York State Fire District Association meetings. Synergized with evil, morally corrupt commissioners, she would fight someone who has his legs chopped off at a fire scene to deny him 207A.with pride.

Some heavy reading, but worth a browse through http://www.nychiefs.org/conference/207c_Seminar_Handout.pdf

There is a well-respected and well known Fire Lieutenant and instructor in a Westchester city who loved his job. While working at a multiple alarm fire, he suffered a clear cut career ending injury. He wants to go back to work. He can't. Yet he has been fighting for years to get the pension and benefits he deserves, having to attend numerous "hearings" and every side sending him to a different doctor, all of which say the same thing and draw the process out.. He lives everyday with pain caused by this injury. All he wants is for his retirement to go through, so he can move on with his life. Yet NYS, the city he works for, and 207A keeps screwing him and beating him down. He has medical bills he has to pay himself, because he's still fighting for the benefits he deserves. Maybe the article in the newspaper should be telling this Lieutenant's story.

The process is broken, and screwed up.The people who abuse it seem to get through the process easily, while those who really need it have to deal with numerous hearings, doctors appointments, a never ending cycle of things that takes years to get.

[Bottom of Da Hill 76]

its very sad what the cops and ff.s go thru.the system sucks!