Troopers serve the state's communities

[Unregistered]

I would like to commend Buffalo PBA President Bob Meegan for finalizing the police contract and ensuring fair pay for his officers now and in the future. This contract ratification, as reported in the May 24 edition of The News, makes the Buffalo police officers the highest paid municipal officers in the county and is certainly well deserved.
I was deeply disturbed, however, by the ignorant comments made by the unnamed police manager at the very end of the article. I do not know why this police manager chose to disparage hardworking and courageous New York State troopers. The comments basically stated, quite incorrectly, that New York State troopers only patrol highways issuing traffic tickets and that this type of work apparently is not dangerous.

First of all, New York State troopers do a lot more than highway patrol work. We perform a complete range of police work in rural and suburban areas all over the state, including patrolling towns and villages. In some instances, troopers are the only police in an entire county.

No other police officer in the state is asked to do what troopers are asked to do. At any time a trooper may be ordered to leave his or her family, and respond to police emergencies anywhere in the state. In recent times troopers, along with the New York Police Department, took responsibility for Manhattan within hours of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Troopers are also called into inner cities to put a stop to rising crime rates, as we were a few summers ago in the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Jamestown and Syracuse.

As far as danger is concerned, I have personally worked with, or trained with, five troopers killed in the line of duty. We had two troopers killed in the line of duty last year. Trooper Lawrence Gleason was shot and killed with a rifle by a suspect in a domestic violence complaint and Trooper Robert Ambrose was burned to death when his police car exploded after being struck by a drunk driver.

So, to the Buffalo police manager who thinks that New York State troopers just "ride up and down the highway writing traffic tickets," I hope that you have a better education as to what troopers do.

JOHN P. MORETTI JR.
New York State Troopers
Police Benevolent Association
Troop A Delegate

[Unregistered]

Praise Bob Meegan!

Its good that the Buffalo Police Officers are the highest paid in Erie County!
Its good that they got a no-layoff clause built into the contract!
Its good that their getting $5,000 bonuses
Its good that they got this for giving up two person police cars in daylight hours and patroling safe neighborhoods. Two person police cars should have been reserved for the evening hours of areas with high violent crime and THEY DIDN"T NEED TO BE COMPENSATED FOR THAT SACRIFICE.

Its good that they abuse overtime and are getting 7milliion in backpay and retirement benefits.
Its good that they forced the city into raising taxes, increasing borrowing and sent the city begging to the state for more state aid, necessitating a control board!
Its good that the money that could have been saved could have been used for mitigate a control board, mitigate tax increases, mitigate borrowing, mitigate all the cancelled school activities and services.
Its good that the police threatened the average working citizen by blocking the major arteries out of the city during rush hour inspecting and ticketing every car entering and leaving the city.

There is nothing BENEVOLENT ABOUT THE POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION. THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS! I HOPE THE STATE CONTROL BOARD NULLIFIES THE CONTRACT AND TURNS THEM OVER TO THE COUNTY.

I CAN RESPECT THE STATE TROOPERS AND THE COUNTY SHERRIFF AND ANYONE NOT COVERED BY THE BUFFALO POLICE CONTRACT BUT I HOPE THAT THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE TURNS AGAINST THEM AND ALL THEPOLITICIANS THAT VOTED FOR THIS CONTRACT. I CURSE THEM AND HOPE THAT WHAT THEY DID TO THE CITY RETURNS TO THEM!

[Unregistered]

The whole issue is, I DON"T WANT TO PAY FOR IT ANY MORE!

The whole issue is, there are qualified people that will do that job for LESS! and do as good of a jobor better.

Notice how they put the word fair into the same sentence as bonus, salaries etc? Who's opinion is that? Thier's or the people screwed paying for it?

I completely respect the job they do, that isn't the point. The point is enough is enough. This is now effecting my life with the amount of taxes I pay to stay competative in business. When you work in the private sector and make $15 an hour with a company that doesn't have the overtime abuse the public sector has, you can't have your taxes going up every year.

I'm not going to work two jobs because my taxes go up. Don't these union people realize money isn't grown on trees? I do not expect my employeer to raise my pay to offset the stupidity of the people that approve these contracts. It causes his cost of running his company to go up and he has to compete against the BIG BOX stores are local town boards allow in.

So people, if the state nulls all contracts and the police start to cause trouble, you know we will have to rid the city of the trouble makers.

Be prepareed, didn't Meegan mention there's going to be trouble if they don't get thier raises? You know it's gonna happen.