Journalist Comes to Defense of Police Salaries

60 Comments

PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ – The suits at The Star-Ledger made a huge display of reporting last weekend that New Jersey police salaries are the highest in the land. To paraphrase a man who puts his life on the line every day to protect his community: Does a bullet feel any different if it’s fired in, say, Lyndhurst, than it does in Paterson? Know how many cops have been killed in the line of duty in Lyndhurst? Four. In Paterson? The same.

Top of the heap in cop salaries, the newspaper said, is Bergen County — coincidentally one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. In fact, the story began with a cop in Closter, where I’ve lived the past few months.

You know how often I’ve seen Closter police respond to accidents and other incidents? A lot. Sometimes they’re dealing with dead people inside wrecked vehicles, other times with domestic disputes, and sometimes with weapons calls. At no time can they be 100 percent a seemingly routine incident won’t turn into a dangerous confrontation.

Ask police in hoity-toity Glen Rock, where a drunken man threatened to shoot three officers last night, then got into a fistfight with them.

Or try New Milford Police Chief Frank Papapietro:

After rushing to a report of a vehicle stuck in a ditch, two of his officers came up against a familiar face — that of 59-year-old Daniel Cardinali, who just weeks earlier tangled with patrolmen sent to his house.

This time, Cardinali began swinging a club before he was subdued — the eighth time this summer a police officer in tiny, working-class New Milford was attacked.

“When people complain about how much officers are paid, they should ask themselves if they could stand up to situations such as these and conduct themselves as professionally as did these officers,” Papapietro said. “They should ask themselves if they could even keep from running away."

I’ve been in journalism 30 years and I never saw a colleague do anything beyond ask questions, take notes or take photos. I had a knife put to my throat in a Perth Amboy housing project while on an assignment late one weekend night. How many other “journalists” can say the same?

Let’s imagine, for a moment, a state without arbitration, where legions of police simply walk off the job. First thing anyone would be doing is begging them to come back.

The irony of the “expose” is difficult to miss: The reporters and editors poring over police salaries with magnifying glasses are the first ones to go knocking on the chief’s door, asking for news about arrests, accidents, triple-ax murders, mayor’s cat caught in a tree, etc.

And police are somehow supposed to bite their tongues and help the very same people who are trying to turn the taxpayers against them?

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Ahi

over 2 years ago

1990 Comments

I like this reporter
Docmo

over 2 years ago

48 Comments

Amen and thank you.

Docmo
d1788216

over 2 years ago

102 Comments

thanks jerry you are one in a million
nvrhdatckt

over 2 years ago

142 Comments

And pay enough so that our cops don't have to take second jobs to make ends meet!!!!!
nvrhdatckt

over 2 years ago

142 Comments

Don' t care if they get a thousand free doughnuts and don't do anything but "give tickets"......when I need them they are there and I don't have to do the fighting, they will do it for me. When budgets are tight they are the first to go because it is the quickest, easiest, don't have to think about it or do any deep studying of the budget way to cut expenses. Whatever they make pay em more and even more than that. Whatever benefits they get give em more and even more than that. They are willing, able, well trained, and at the beck and call of every asshole out there. So quit whining about people who are NOT whining and get behind our cops. If some of them are not up to par they will be weeded out and I don't know anyone who doesn't mess up occasionally although they are not allowed the luxury of messing up. No time to think it out just do it and do it rightl is always the expectation. Give em a big raise and a flashy car to "write tickets" AND if you don't want to get a ticket the solution is simple..... don't speed.
cj1148

over 2 years ago

58 Comments

Well said Jerry
MacheteEguis

over 2 years ago

4 Comments

Excellent article!!!!!
radarcop

over 2 years ago

254 Comments

If only everyone could read this article and think like this guy! Thank you for writing this - I do not know many officers who don't work overtime and/or a second job. Plus all the other crap you put up with - in 25+ years I have had 2 knee operations, 1 shoulder operation, been beat up - spit on all on the job and when someone told me hey I am paying your salary, my comeback was always - you paid it yesterday - I am paying my own salary today
fsudebbie

over 2 years ago

8 Comments

Most people just don't get it. We are all taxpayers too and we help finance our own salaries, sometimes more than the whiners who always claim to "pay our salary". I know I personally paid more taxes that most of those I heard that from, both in income tax and property tax. So get a life and get a real job, if you don't like what you are getting paid. I have a Bachelors and Masters degree so I could get a little extra pay. But I still bleed like everyone else when it comes time to take the licks on the job. Man up and give the heros what they deserve.
Biggbadwolf

over 2 years ago

4 Comments

Hallelujah anyhow!
nrp5hgwedf

over 2 years ago

0 Comments

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comfort us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. Best in Blue!
copper5817

over 2 years ago

892 Comments

Don't think I forgot about you bottomgun 726. When was the last time a plumber got shot at for wanting to fix a sink?...
"stop whining do the job you chose or quit"
No one here was whining to begin with. This was an unsolicited article of support.

"let someone who would appreciate the easy life for once do the damn job.sgt lexington fayette police dept."
Easy eh?...

Thank you for your uninformed opinion. I can see that your whole 15 minutes of membership on this website has been well spent.
copper5817

over 2 years ago

892 Comments

karkonis and jarquig, good lord...please do some actual research before you run your mouth here.

Jarquig, I do agree regarding more armed citizens. As you probably both know and lament, we can't be everywhere all the time, so anyone who ACTS like a victim probably will end up being one eventually.

Karkonis, we are expected to lay our life down if necessary, and would gladly do it if it was needed. How about you?
Thanks for this article Jerry!
angel184blue

over 2 years ago

64 Comments

its funny how easy it is to write an opinion down on website wall and feel like a tough guy...lol. y dont u come out and play...n c what the police does...day in and day out..... tough guys behind a computer...lmao
revCCBeasley

over 2 years ago

2944 Comments

Karkonis, They are not paid to give their lives, but the same public wants to take their lives....So the family stress for a job somone has to do. I am a vet also and I am paid to protect the US, my life is part of the deal. Well LEO's are paid to protect the public, OH MY GOD with your life as well.