INIT915

Tasers have saved THOUSANDS of lives and prevented THOUSANDS more in injuries. That is the bottom line. Many people have been tased, which, if a Taser wasn't an option, probably would have been shot.
Consider all the successful cases of perps with knives, baseball bats, and other weapons that might have otherwise been lawfully subjected to deadly physical force.

Are you familiar with the many private sector companies who provide educational benefits that far exceed any public sector employees. It has long been widely accepted that an educated workforce is a more productive workforce. When I finished graduate school, there was a FD Lt. in my program. His city (here int he Hudson Valley) paid $12,000 for him to obtain his graduate degree. The city then utilized him and was able to dismiss a six-figure private contractor who had been doing work he was now capable of doing for free. Such personnel moves are called investments.
Care to disclose the company you work for? I'd be interested to see how much success they have had in not investing in their employees...
My brother works in the private sector. His company paid 100% of his tuition for both his MBA and his law degree at a rather expensive Boston area college. That was over $250,000 in free money. Many, many, many private companies do that. No public sector employees have anything like that.
And the Harrison case you discuss, as Chris mentioned, was widely reported on at the time. That officers degree was in physical education, which arguably has a direct correlation to law enforcement work.

"batt. 12" -- Perhaps you could provide us with some of your empirical data that weighs the cost/benefit analysis of using SUV's in place of Engines/Trucks, accounting for fuel, wear/tear, insurance/liability, etc, etc...
You do have that, right? I know you wouldn't be making such declaratory statements unless you had supporting documentation after carefully evaluating all available evidence, right?
I eagerly look forward to specific links that you provide us so we can all become as educated as you are and make such broad statements.

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

In this particular example you're referring to the Harrison PD and discussing this is not bashing. It was published in the Journal News in September 2010 and is a matter of public record. The issue was courses taken by a single officer not related at all to his employment. One officer, one year out of how many for how long? How about all the officers who got bachelor's or graduate degrees and use them in their service to their town? You're condemning all tuition reimbursement or educational programs because of the conduct of a single officer. Sounds like you're saying one bad apple spoils the bunch and that simply isn't true.
How much money is spent by Harrison on college courses for employees? I doubt they're paying full-price for courses at colleges located in their town. More than likely the town receives substantially discounted rates and the college gets a tax deduction for providing them the opportunity. The net result is a negligible cost to the taxpayer so even if a phys ed or dance class is taken it isn't an abuse of public funds or breach of the public trust.
Instead of directing your animosity at hard-working public employees, why don't you rally against the free education, free cable TV, free "gym membership", free medical and dental care being provided to inmates who are receving those perks because they broke the law. Vastly different than union members getting education stipends, discounts, or reimbursement from their employers.

Not me, my union got me today off

You continue to make baseless assertions about unions and allegations of corruption without providing anyone with any point of reference to perform their own research. You claim you're getting this from bona fide sources. If you are, post a link so we can all read what you're referencing. It's not that difficult and is done here all the time.
You continue to be condescending and make sweeping generalizations about all different parties, groups, unions, and most importantly members of this forum. If you can't state your case without insulting us, please take your rhetoric elsewhere.
.
If you have specific examples, cite them and let us do our own research and come to our own conclusions. Your vague references to elusive sources doesn't bolster your position.

I am not here to argue republican/democrat with you but I do have a question.
In what way does a social contract/compact align itself with a communist society? How is it worse than anything else mentioned to date?
In a nutshell if you are not familiar, a social contract/compact was a concept initially described by french enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau in which he argued that government had an obligation to protect its citizens, thus a social contract. If you want to live here, you have to agree with our rules and we will protect you using them.
If you read the Preamble to the US Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It is the entire idea of a social contract.
If you read it carefully it has some interesting statements: provide for the common defense; promote welfare; secure our posterity....
I guess they must have been communists too....

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

EMS'er - your anti-cop and anti-union posts piss me off.
Do you have ANY idea of just how hard our respective municipalities would put the screws to us in the police and fire professions if we didn't have Unions? They do it enough with Union protection!
I would tell you to look at the big picture, but I am sure your vision is obscurred by the Obama sticker on your Prius!

Actually, legally speaking, public funds can be used for Hess's defense, as long as he is indemnified by his employer. (Which I'm sure he will be).
And speaking personally, public funds should be used, as Hess was acting appropriately and in the performance of his official duties.

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

Can you give examples of how my union has not "fairly negotiated"?
Can you explain why my employer takes money out of every one of my paychecks under the title: "medical"?
While I do not have to pay into my "pension", I am paid less than when I was in the private sector and had to pay into my retirement. When I was debating switching jobs the issue was less pay, but more benefits. A hard choice when your single, no children and in your 20's, but I understood that as I got older it would be worth it.
How did we get this pension system? Was it the greedy unions that developed it? We had a city pension system until the 1960s, when the Mayors in NY State determined it would be cheaper for the taxpayers to have one pension system (and they would look good reducing cost), instead of one in every municipality and they convinced the state legislature to develop it.
Interesting way to look at it, I understand it very differently. All FF's are at similar risks of being hurt/killed at an incident, but after figuring out what a firefighter salary should be, the municipalities understand that if they lower the starting salary by up to 50% with a 5 year build up to "top" pay knowing there are still enough people willing to take the job and struggle to make ends meet for those 1st few years. It’s not non-merit, it is what they should have made in the 1st place, but the big bad unions dont have enough power to fight this reduction.
My union contract allows all members to "share" in a college funding account. By contract the city must fund $20,000 per year (not per member) to cover the tuition of all union members. At its height that was 181 members sharing $20,000. If 20 of those union members went to college, each was able to get $1,000 toward their annual college education. Now to get this benefit, the union had to give up something and in the last few years more than $10,000 of the fund each year does not get used and is returned to the City's general fund. Over the last 25 years I think about a dozen members have participated and 3 or 4 have gotten degrees.
And the tax payers benefit from all of this.
We do, we do, we do and while I did benefit from the education, it taught me how to bring over $2.5 million back into my municipality and reducing the cost of property insurance by more than a million annually for the last 14 years. Over the last 25 years $450,000 has been made available to 175 employees, but only about 1/2 has been used. and the return on the investment has been over $16 million.
You still have yet to show anyone how "they sold us out"?
I have given you the history, to bad you missed it in your research. Its true, you are ignorant of all the facts and you make a lot of assumptions, that are not true.
Then how come, for every gimme, we had to vote on giving something up? Or worst it was taken from us by an arbitrator.

New hires do pay into their retirement and most jobs are moving over to medical contributions. Teachers get medical FREE upon retirement, so Police and Fire shouldn't?
I would LOVE to get raises base on merit and productivity, I'd be a millionare, but then again everyone would complain we make too much money even though we "earned" it with "hard work". Im sure the FFs in the room wouldn't mind getting paid either based on the severity of the fires they fight, or get a little extra for going to an over abundance of activated alarms!
Jobs want their employees educated, and believe me, the coverage isnt much at all so you can have that back, just give me my "merit based" raises!
Sold us out to the Democrats? The Democrats the ones who want the contributions and such. I think you should read up a little more in a fact based document instead of icantpassacivilservicetest.com!

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

Well, a few things.
I might suggest that your grammar is more ignorant then my opinion, but I’m above that, so I won’t. 
And while discussing ignorance, let's take a look at your "facts".
Every single one of your assertions is wrong. I believe that is ignorant. Your contention that all public employee unions are entitled to all the benefits you list is just absurd. Please let us know the source where you are drawing your "facts" from.

Lets throw another wrinkle into this. 1st its not that Pelham will not provide additional taxes, in reality they can't. Because the population is so small, the per capita costs to improve are never going to happen. The real issue for Pelham, Pelham Manor and any other small community FD or understaffed FD (career, combo or vol.) is ISO's plan to change the rating system this year.
Under the new plan, any dept that responds to fire calls with fewer than 6 firefighters (2 in / 2 out, MPO & IC) will automatically become an ISO 9.
What does this mean for Pelham?
Annual insurance premiums for commercial and residential properties in Pelham is approximately $5.1 million. In Pelham Manor the premiums are approximately $5.9 million. Combined, the property owners in Pelham and Pelham Manor pay roughly $11 million per year in premiums.
Both PFD & PMFD are ISO PPC 4's. If the 2 depts do not restructure the way the respond to fire so the have at least 4 interior qulified members + an MPO & IC, Both villages will see the ISO change them to 9 and the insurance premiums will go up by 40% per year. Thats a combined increas of $4.4 MILLION.
This increase is more than the current combined budget of the 2 fire departments.
Meanwhile the Pelham Village Mayor and Board are considering reducing manning.
I suspect nothing will change until the ISO rating does and then the finger pointing at village hall will begin.

Henry's family should be PAYING the Police Officer $120 million, not suing for it. There son attempted to murder Police Officers and placed other innocent persons in grave danger by attempting to run over the Police Officers while driving drunk. The Henry family should be hanging their heads in shame and owe the Police Officers an apology for the criminal actions of their son.

Rayrider,
Law states to move over if safe to do so - otherwise, SLOW DOWN and don't go blasting on by the emergency vehicle. Really, it's not rocket science.

I love the "LoHud Lawyers". Especially the one who cites "probably cause". They're even better then all our "EMTBravo Lawyers"!

I love the "LoHud Lawyers". Especially the one who cites "probably cause". They're even better then all our "EMTBravo Lawyers"!

"Criminal profiling" and "racial profiling" are two very different things. Professional law enforcement officers know the difference!

Didn't try to make a race issue out of it? Are you serious?!?!?!? I watched them in an interview say, in no uncertain terms, that if their son was white, he would not have been shot.