These are the stories of the American Police Veterans.
America made a promise to take care of those that have protected America. That promise wasn't broken. It was empty words. Some of those words were turned into laws, where they were ignored. America Thinks that retired and disabled law enforcement officers are living large at the expense of the taxpayer. Read their stories. Then decide for yourself. Who is paying the ultimate price for safe American communities.
Help the children, too
This entry was posted on 4/8/2006 10:22 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
By Alan Odze, American Police Veteran Rockland Journal News, December 11, 2005
Your newspaper recently reported a kind act of generosity coming out of Kalamazoo, Mich., where an anonymous group of benefactors is offering free scholarships to nearly all the city's high school students.
In New York state, it is a very sad fact that our Legislature does not feel that family members (children) of police, fire or EMT who are killed or seriously and permanently injured deserve a scholarship. A few states have provided full scholarships for such children. This is not too much to ask for.
The National Law Enforcement and Firefighters Childrens Foundation provides scholarships to children of firefighters or police officers killed in the line of duty. But if the firefighter or police officer is totally and permanently disabled, their children do not qualify. Further, EMT workers are not included at all. This is an outright disgrace.
The government does have a program called the Public Safety Officers Benefits Act. However, there is no guarantee that a public safety officer's family will qualify for this program.
Very few of us can afford to send our children to college on a disability pension. Many of us worked two and three jobs to make ends meet so we could provide a comfortable lifestyle for our families. Recently, I requested that Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski and state Sen. Thomas Morahan help all the children of totally disabled police, fire and EMS personnel or those who have died in line-of-duty incidents. I remain hopeful that our legislators see fit to assist these children whose parents gave so unselfishly to help the public.
7/14/2006 12:42 AM
Barbara Hinke wrote:
Thank God children are resilient, as they can adapt to pretty much up to a certain age. Mine was 3 when my BS started with the department and didn't end til she was 15. She basically grew up witnessing the bickering and fighting going on. She hates uniforms. I keep telling her it wasn't the uniform that was doing it, it was the W/C personnel. It didn't matter to her, she will always relate the two. But thank God she didn't lose out to a disadvantaged upbringing, other sources were coming in, but what if they weren't? Totally frightening thinking back.
