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Post by bluepride on Jun 18, 2014 14:03:11 GMT -5
New Gilford police chief: 'I'm here to be chief of police, not to talk about gay rights' GILFORD, New Hampshire — Police Chief Anthony Bean Burpee is not concerned with talking about gay rights, though he is among the first gay police chiefs in the state.“I’m here to be the chief of police, not to talk about gay rights,” Bean Burpee said Monday. “Though I will say I am fortunate to come from one state with legal gay marriage to another.”He comes to town from Kennebunk, Maine, where he was a lieutenant. He served in Maine law enforcement for 16 years. Bean Burpee said he and his husband plan to move to Gilford from their home in Sanford, Maine, later this year.Bean Burpee replaces former chief Kevin Keenan, who resigned on Nov. 20 following a town investigation into an affair he acknowledged having with a female officer in the department.Bean Burpee began his duties on June 1. Since then, he has been learning the policies of the department and the differences between laws in Maine and New Hampshire.“You’d be surprised; there’s lots of differences between the laws,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn there.”He’s also working to create an open atmosphere with his staff, he said.“At 16 years of experience, my career is relatively short, and there are other officers here with a lot more experience in the field and in this department than I have,” he said. “What’s happened in the past is in the past. I want to have an open-door policy for anyone here who has ideas or who can help.”He made the move to chief when the younger of his two sons (from a previous marriage) graduated from high school.“I started looking then; it seemed the right time to make a move,” he said.He was chosen by Gilford officials from a pool of 47 candidates.Besides his police work, he has a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice and two master’s degrees, one in public administration and the other in criminal justice. Burpee worked as an adjunct professor at York Community College in Wells, Maine. He said he hopes to continue teaching in New Hampshire.He said he chose Gilford in part because it is similar to Kennebunk in being a waterside community.“I want to be a working chief, be on patrol a lot. I think that keeps you in touch,” he said. “I don’t want to lose the feel of being in a police car.”READ ARTICLE: New Gilford police chief: 'I'm here to be chief of police, not to talk about gay rights'
I think of that saying that goes, "Be the change that you want to see in the world". In other words, just do it and don't make an issue of it. Others will see that there's nothing out of the ordinary by having a gay Chief. Isn't that what what we've wanted all along? To just be the same as anyone else? Or did I have it wrong for all these decades?  Best of luck to the Chief! |
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Post by bluepride on Aug 23, 2014 17:20:15 GMT -5
Day in the Life Of: a police officer, Ciante Bradley “This is normal for us, but it’s not for them; you’re walking into these people’s worst days. You have to remember that.”
Fair yet firm seems to be the mantra that Ciante Bradley employs in her duties as a Philadelphia police officer.
On an afternoon in late July, Bradley pulls up to a rundown home in Northwest Philadelphia, following up on a call from a woman reporting domestic abuse. Two men sitting outside barely look up from their smart phones as she approaches.
When they deny that anyone from the home called the police, she asks if a woman lives there. One says his sister does. The other says no women live there.
Bradley instructs the one to go check if any females inside called police — because without probable cause, she can’t search the home.
“Is that your cat?” she asks the remaining man about the white cat stretched comically between the two chairs. An imperceptible nod. “Does he always lay like that?” she follows up in small talk. Another imperceptible nod.
The first man returns and reports that all is well in the house.
“Yeah, they don’t like cops in this area,” Bradley mutters as she climbs back into her vehicle, after ordering another group of middle-aged men from a stoop where they acknowledged none of the group lived. “They’ll walk away now and I’ll drive around the corner and they’ll all be sitting there again.”
But attitudes toward police vary across the 14th District.
A few minutes later, Bradley swings by Che Bar & Grill on Stenton Avenue to check in with the owner and check up on the locale, and diners and drinkers greet her jovially and invite her to stay. Later, the operator of Toto’s Pizzeria, where Bradley and her patrol partner grab lunch almost every day, greets the pair by name, and they wave to a young girl ogling them, and ask her if she wants to be a police officer when she grows up.
The 14th District is diverse. Each of its four patrol-service areas takes in residents of distinct demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds — from blocks of dilapidated rowhomes and apartments whose occupants live in poverty to the mansions of Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy.
Within moments, Bradley’s patrol car goes from wending through webs of abandoned buildings to being outside Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey’s sprawling home.
“We have a very political district,” she said. “Deputy commissioners, judges, the commissioner all live here; you don’t ever want to be caught without your hat on if you work in the commissioner’s district.”
Bradley, 29 and a seven-year veteran, is usually assigned to PSA 1, which encompasses West Oak Lane and part of Germantown, bordered at the top by Cheltenham Avenue and the bottom by Chew Avenue.
When her shift starts, Bradley pulls out of the station, situated off Germantown Avenue, and heads toward her PSA.
Next to her seat is a small computer monitor to which dispatchers post the “jobs” that are called in. Each is denoted with a code to signify its location, so officers assigned to PSA 1 know to respond to calls that end in “01,” although they often also go to calls in other PSAs as backup.
Bradley explained that officers could conceivably spend their eight-hour shifts responding solely to the calls, but most prefer more active policing.
“You can get the arrests, it just depends on how aggressively you’re watching. I could just ride around and answer radio calls but I’m also constantly observing for things like hand-to-hand transactions,” she said.
In the preceding two weeks with her new patrol partner, Bradley said, the pair made three arrests, a number affected by an array of factors.
“It really depends on how the week goes. Sometimes there are dry weeks. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are usually busier, I guess people get paid. And you have to watch out for the first and 15th of the month. It’s almost like we’re working on their schedules sometimes,” she said. “And I’ve learned that a good percentage of arrests you get is almost luck; you happen to be at the right place at the right time.”
Knowing the neighborhood, and the patterns of the people who frequent it, is also important, she said.
“They know to watch for the cops. We now have lights on the top of the car that always stay on, so they can see us from a block away. So you have to know your area and what goes on each day. People think we don’t recognize them. We drive these blocks every day. We pay attention. And I do it so naturally now, I don’t even realize I’m doing it. I look at people’s tag numbers when I’m off-duty, driving down 95. I can’t turn it off, it’s the weirdest thing.”
At one point, Bradley cuts off mid-sentence, turns on her lights and makes a quick turn, following a car she spotted out of a side mirror blowing through a red light.
After running the driver’s tags, she approached and he told her he was lost and didn’t realize he went through a red.
While this driver was relatively respectful, she said some, especially younger drivers, aren’t.
“I always say the best car stop you can ever do is pulling over an older gentleman, 60 or 70. They’re the most respectful people you’d ever want to pull over in your life. It’s always, ‘Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am.’ You pull over a younger guy and it’s like, ‘What the f*ck are you pullin’ me over for?’ And I’m like, I didn’t even say anything yet, I don’t even have a ticket pulled! But they’re always going to argue with you; you’re always going to be wrong, they’re always going to be right. They think it’s like customer service. So I just have to say, ‘You blew the light, I’m just letting you know.’ And they go, ‘I didn’t, I didn’t,’ and there’s no point in arguing. I wouldn’t have pulled you over for no apparent reason. And probably half the time they really don’t even know they did it. Or they do and they think they’ll get away with it. But a lot of people are always very much on the defense. A lot of younger people just have no respect for anything or anybody.”
She occasionally encounters disparaging attitudes from the public directed at her being a female.
“Sometimes you get a guy who thinks he can talk to you any type of way. I guess they try to be persuasive. Or at least they think they’re persuasive,” she said. “They use the ‘sweetheart,’ ‘baby,’ or sometimes think they can be more aggressive, especially if you’re little. I have a knack for pulling over the biggest guys; sometimes I have to deal with guys who are 6-foot-4. But I feel confident. I know I have to do what I have to do and I trust that I have backup coming if I need it. I don’t allow them to push me around because I’m a woman.”
To engender trust and respect from the people she encounters, Bradley said, she attempts to strike a balance between staying professional, in presentation and demeanor, while also being relatable.
“You have to have a rapport with them. So many people have bad ideas about cops and I can understand that you do see some of that. But I try to go into situations and tell people, ‘Hey, calm down. Don’t allow this gun and badge to make you think I’m not a person. I’m human just like you, I feel just like you and I understand. I empathize with you, but this is not what the law says. It doesn’t matter how you feel, it matters what the law says; it’s about right and wrong.’ And once you talk to most people, treat them like you’re both just regular people, that calms people down a whole lot. I don’t know why people think we come with so much aggression and the whole ‘You do what I say!’ That’s silly, we’re not like that, unless we have to be. There has to be a situation to bring us to that point.”
This particular day, Bradley put her approach into practice in dealing with a young woman who called police reporting that a man she had been living with pulled a gun on her when she attempted to retrieve her belongings from the home. The alert went out on the radio and, flipping on her lights and sirens, Bradley raced deftly around SEPTA buses and to the scene, where three other patrol cars also amassed.
Bradley rolled down her window and asked the woman to recount her story, keeping her on track and repeatedly assuring her they’d handle the situation.
After a thorough search of the home and interview with the man in question, the officers determined the gun claim was likely fabricated — which Bradley said happens more frequently than one might expect — so the woman could regain access to her belongings, which she carried out of the home in a Tupperware container.
The four cars disperse to head back to their patrol areas, where Bradley spots a car double-parked on the sidewalk. The vehicle pulls out in front of her and Bradley turns on her lights, following the car into a gas station, where the driver attests she didn’t know it was illegal to park on a sidewalk.
Bradley radios in each car stop she makes to the dispatch center, through a radio attached to her right shoulder, with details on the location and make, model and plate number of the car.
“People don’t realize how important it is that we stay in touch with dispatch. Can you imagine if we don’t tell them where we are and something happens? You could be gone for a long time before somebody even realizes something happened.”
Having a patrol partner alleviates some of that concern, she added.
For seven years, Bradley worked the overnight shift — 11:30 p.m.-7:30 a.m. — solo. But, the schedule became too draining, mentally and physically, and two months ago, she asked to change shifts. She now spends two weeks working 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. followed by two weeks of 3:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m., and she now has a partner.
Switching shifts offered an interesting shift in perspective, she said.
“I love children and I didn’t get to interact with too many of them on the overnight shift. I came to day shift and I see little kids now who wave as I go by and I’m like, They’re waving to me? Wow. On last call, you drive by and people are flipping you the bird,” she laughed, adding that she can also now understand where some of the late-night problems she encountered stem from. “I see people sitting out drinking at 8 a.m. and they’re the same people I’d encounter who were really drunk at 3 a.m.; they start drinking in the morning and go all day.”
As Bradley wends her way through the streets, she points out some of the popular gathering spots for daytime drinkers, such as outside a deli where a line of men sit in lawn chairs.
Then, she is on to a call to take a report from an elderly woman who, the night before, spotted a man exposing himself outside of her window. As the woman details the encounter, Bradley stands in the living room, jotting notes down on a pad of paper, prompting her for details.
Next, she heads to the scene of an auto accident, where a driver hit another car and fled. She gathers details from the victim and then heads back to headquarters to draw up and hand in a report.
“It’s something different constantly,” she said about the pace of the job. “That’s what I like. I could never have a 9-to-5 office job.”
While the job offers new experiences, they can be quite testing — and dangerous.
Bradley has had to pull her gun many times, but has never shot nor been shot at. She and fellow officers recently had to try to quell a woman who was wielding two kitchen knives, and later jagged pieces of a vase, and had to traverse a rat- and feces-infested living room to reach her. She’s caught fleas and bedbugs and said she often has to “hopscotch” over roaches when entering some houses.
Once, when responding to a report of a fight, Bradley found herself in the middle of a brawl.
“I pulled up and a gentleman started walking down and as I tried to open the door, he already was slamming it shut on me. That turned into a fiasco. About 30 people filed out of this one house, their entire family, and it went to a triple-asset,” she said, noting she suffered a split lip in the encounter. “There were officers everywhere, people everywhere, officers getting punched.”
During another arrest, a suspect got physical and her glasses got smashed into her face, causing a black eye — and prompting her to now always wear plastic frames while on the job.
She’s seen victims of stabbings and gunshots — both homicides and self-inflicted.
“You see your fair share of it. But you get used to seeing it, it’s weird. You just have to always have that level of, ‘This is work.’ I understand a person died, and we have to get the information to find out who did this. You don’t have time to allow emotion to come into it. You’re here for a reason and it’s important.”
The aunt of two young girls and a prospective adoptive parent herself, Bradley said situations involving children are among the worst part of her job.
Once, she spotted two 8-year-old children at Germantown and Chelten in the middle of the night. She brought them home to find their 10-year-old cousin had been left in charge of them and a 1-year-old since the previous morning. Their fridge contained lumpy milk and a plate of moldy food.
She transported the kids to the Department of Human Services but, hours later, their mother, “high as a kite,” picked the kids up and they were returned straight to her care.
But, leaving work at work has become a practiced routine.
“I can do it,” she said. “I get done, I go home, I let my dog out and then we watch Animal Planet. That’s about it. You get used to it.”
But, the nature of the job can make it difficult for non-officers to relate.
“It can be bad for relationships; I know it has been for some of mine,” Bradley said. “There were days when I’d see suicides, dead babies and I get home and I just am not in the mood to, you know, go to Target. Like Target, right now? I’ve seen something crazy and I just want to chill out. Someone you’re in a relationship with doesn’t always understand that. And it’s not every day but some days. Some days you have to just be like, ‘You go to Target, and I’ll just wait here for you to come back.’”
It helps to have fellow officers to lean on, Bradley said.
The 14th District team functions like a family, she added. They don’t always all get along, but there is an implicit trust that they’ll have each other’s backs in times of crisis. Partners spend eight-hour shifts on patrol together, and the officers often are together on holidays; on Fourth of July, they all brought in food and barbecued at the district.
This night, after filing a report halfway through her shift, Bradley joked with another officer at the station, whom she calls an “honorary lesbian.” The officer, who is straight, has been mistaken for being Bradley’s girlfriend by people they encounter when hanging out outside of work, and her laidback attitude, Bradley said, mirrors the LGBT acceptance Bradley found throughout the force.
Bradley said she is “completely out” on the job, and has been since her first day at the Police Academy, in 2006.
“There was a guy in my academy class who was gay and he was like [whispering], ‘Do they know about you?’ and I was like [whispering] ‘Yeah, they do and it’s OK. We’ll all still be your friend. And if they don’t, I will!’”
Before joining the academy, Bradley, who was pursuing an EMT certification, said she was turned down for a number of jobs because of her gender presentation.
“I would go on job interviews and, because I dress non-feminine, I’d get that look as soon as I walked in the door. You could just see it. But I never let it get to me. My mom was constantly in my ear, like ‘God will open a door, their loss.’ She made it OK.”
Bradley’s mom spent 10 years as a police dispatcher and encouraged her to apply for the academy.
“I was never one of those kids who wanted to be a cop from the time I was little. I just decided to go for it and it turned out that I loved it. I absolutely love my job.”
The middle of three daughters, Bradley said her parents instilled a strong work ethic and appreciation for rules in her and her sisters from the time they were young.
“We would get home from school and we’d have a snack and then it was homework and chores,” she said. “In the summer, my mom wouldn’t let us sleep all day; she’d come in at 9:30, 10, pulling up our blinds and make us get up.”
As she drives through the streets around 10 p.m. with the windows down, shrieks of kids chasing each other float in, and one boy rides his bicycle alone down a dimly lit street.
“I can’t imagine my parents letting me stay out this late,” she said, noting that she had a very different upbringing than most in her North Philadelphia neighborhood. “We were like the only kids on the block who had a curfew. Back then, I was like, ‘Aw, Mom, come on!’ Now that I look back, I’m like, ‘Thanks, Mom.’ Just ’cause you live there, you don’t have to be your environment. And I’m really grateful that I had two parents; a lot of these kids don’t even have one.”
Near the end of her shift, a call came in that put her own childhood into stark contrast.
A 15-year-old went missing from a group home for troubled teen girls. The girl had run away from the home before and spent six months AWOL until her father found and returned her. After less than two days, she walked out again. The workers chatted as they filled out the requisite paperwork to hand Bradley, noting that, when she’s found, the teen will likely again be returned to the home. And, they shrugged, will likely again walk out the front door.
“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Bradley shook her head, as she climbed back into her car. “She could be anywhere.”
Driving back to the station, she again stopped mid-sentence. This time, she caught a glimpse of a man urinating on a fence down a dark alley.
Shining her car light on him, she pulled up alongside, rolled down the window and asked what he was doing.
“Fixing my pants,” he said, starting to walk away.
“Do you know it’s illegal to urinate in public?” she asked.
“Really?” he responded, smiling. “Is that a new law?”
Bradley chuckled back and told him to keep that in mind, to which he replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
Pulling back onto the road, Bradley laughed.
“Yeah, you see something new every day.”
READ ARTICLE HERE: A Day In The Life
A good article from the Philadelphia Gay News about a good, everyday Police Officer who just happens to be a lesbian. Gay and lesbian cops are no different from their straight counterparts in that they go to work every day and hopefully, come home at the end of their tour. We all bleed the same color. Although blood is red, we like to say we bleed blue. We're all different but we're all the same. We don't go out there hunting people and we don't go out there looking to shoot people. But sometimes, miscreants force our hand and we must protect ourselves. Real law enforcement people know and understand that and are smart enough to acknowledge that. It is not in any of our job descriptions to become seriously injured or killed, in spite of what some ignorant people might think. And we don't go out there looking for trouble. But sometimes trouble drops into our laps in the course of a tour and we must deal with it. And deal with it, we will.
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Post by bluepride on Oct 20, 2014 16:36:38 GMT -5
City seeks dismissal of gay cop’s lawsuit (From Philadelphia...)City attorneys have asked a Philadelphia judge to dismiss the lawsuit of N. Melville Jones, a gay police officer who claims pervasive anti-LGBT workplace bias.
In a 64-page motion filed Oct. 6, city attorneys said Jones’ lawsuit lacks merit and should be dismissed before it goes to trial.
Jones, 55, is a 16-year veteran of the force. He’s suing the city in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court for more than $50,000 in damages.
Jones claims his former supervisor, C. Daniel Castro, spotted Jones leaving a gay bar in 2009 and outed him a few months later by circulating an office memo that referred to him as “Mel Cums Jones.”
But in its Oct. 6 motion for dismissal, the city denies that the memo outed Jones.
“The language in the memo does not specifically reference [Jones’] sexual orientation,” the motion states. “The word ‘cums’ refers to a bodily function that equally applies to persons of all sexual orientations, not just gay individuals. Therefore, the Oct. 28, 2009, memo did not reveal to the department that [Jones] was gay.”
Jones also alleges that Castro reassigned him to the “graveyard” shift as a punitive measure because Jones wouldn’t be his protégé and participate in unscrupulous practices.
But the city motion contends that Jones’ reassignment was strictly a “business” decision, not motivated by anti-LGBT animus.
The motion also notes that 21 non-LGBT police officers also were reassigned to the graveyard shift during the same time period.
“[Jones] cannot maintain that he was targeted by Castro because of his sexual orientation, because 21 similarly situated heterosexual officers were treated the same,” the motion states.
Castro, 51, is currently incarcerated in federal prison due to an unrelated extortion conviction. His scheduled release date is April 7, 2015.
Jones also contends that four other supervisors harassed him due to his sexual orientation. Their alleged behavior includes accusing Jones of having sex in the men’s locker room, making untoward comments about Jones’ anus and referring to a lesbian police officer as a “carpet muncher.”
The city says those allegations must be dismissed because Jones didn’t include them in complaints that he filed with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.
As for a supervisor’s comments about Jones’ anus, the city’s motion states: “Comments about [Jones’] anus did not affect [Jones’] ability to do his job because [Jones] was used to working in an environment where people joked about such things.”
Even if all of Jones’ allegations are true, the city’s motion adds, they don’t rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment.
“Because the city took appropriate remedial action to address Jones’ complaints of alleged harassment and because Jones unreasonably failed to utilize the city’s reporting procedures, Jones has failed to establish a cause of action for hostile work environment,” the motion concludes.
At presstime, the city’s motion for dismissal remained pending before Common Pleas Judge Ellen Ceisler.
Jones’ attorneys have 20 days to respond. Neither side had a comment for this story.
READ ARTICLE HERE: City seeks dismissal of gay cop’s lawsuit |
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Post by bluepride on Nov 13, 2014 17:18:18 GMT -5
LGBT abuse detailed in gay officer’s deposition More details about alleged anti-LGBT abuse at the Philadelphia Police Department were released last month in a deposition by openly gay police officer N. Melville Jones.
Jones is suing the city in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, alleging pervasive anti-LGBT workplace bias.
In his sworn deposition, Jones testified about physical and verbal abuse that allegedly created a hostile workplace environment for LGBT employees. For example, he said, supervisors in the 24th District spread rumors that he had sex in the men’s locker room.
On one occasion, a sergeant allegedly asked Jones upon his return from the locker room, “Oh, was it good for you, Melville? Did they pay you?”
Because of the alleged harassment, Jones stopped using the men’s locker room to change clothing.
“Even when it’s raining or snowing, I get dressed outside of my car,” Jones testified.
Jones said lesbian officers also have been targeted for abuse, with top brass referring to them as “crazy lesbians” and “carpet munchers.”
Non-LGBT officers in the 24th District would refuse to assist a lesbian officer when she responded to dangerous assignments, he said.
“She wouldn’t get backup,” Jones said, even when she requested assistance over police radio.
Another lesbian officer was physically assaulted by a lieutenant, Jones said.
“He slammed her into a desk, and he physically tried to fight me in the hallway.”
He said the lesbian officer reported that incident to the city’s Human Relations Commission.
Overt racism allegedly permeates the police force, with slurs such as “nigger,” “spic,” “wetback” and “monkey” routinely uttered, he testified. A lieutenant allegedly stated: “I don’t know why you black people are always late,” according to Jones, who is African-American.
The same lieutenant asked Jones if he cooks breakfast for a gay coworker, implying they must be domestic partners, Jones said.
Sexism, too, is an issue within the police force, according to Jones, who said he saw a sergeant grab his crotch and shake his penis in front of a female officer.
A gay male officer was treated callously after missing work to care for a terminally ill aunt, he added. “I wish she’d hurry up and die,” a supervisor allegedly said of the man’s aunt.
And a transman officer was disparaged after undergoing a double mastectomy, Jones added.
“This is just a waste of two perfectly good breasts,” a corporal allegedly said. “Oh, I just can’t understand any of this.”
Jones said he’s friendly with several LGBT colleagues. But the friendships were derided by a lieutenant, who allegedly said: “Oh, these gays are always with their little cliques.”
Jones said the lieutenant also conveyed to him that LGBTs are “always whining and crying.”
A police captain was allegedly sexually attracted to Jones and pursued him in a manner that outed Jones.
“Once he started pursuing me, he really pushed me to the forefront, where everybody is looking like, ‘He’s gay,’” Jones said. “[The captain] might as well have hung a sign around me.”
Jones added: “He had a thing for me. He just wanted me around him. He was pursuing me. It was just too much attention on me. He was doing things to try to get me to be closer to him. When that didn’t work, it was just like I spurned him and he became angry and started doing more things to me.”
The captain’s alleged pursuit of Jones was so blatant that coworkers asked if the captain ejaculated on Jones or vice versa.
Jones filed antibias complaints with the city’s Human Relations Commission, and last year he filed suit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
When asked why he didn’t report the alleged abuse suffered by his LGBT colleagues, Jones replied: “It’s their personal things to report.”
Jones also said LGBT antibias complaints aren’t taken seriously by the department.
“You report instances and they go nowhere,” he testified.
Jones is still a police officer, but he’s been transferred out of the 24th District, according to court records.
A non-jury trial is scheduled for early next year, but the city has requested that the case be dismissed. Jones is seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages, according to court records.
READ ARTICLE HERE: LGBT abuse detailed in gay officer’s deposition
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Post by bluepride on Nov 16, 2014 13:58:37 GMT -5
Dale is right about the so-called sensitivity training. Most of the time it's just an obligation that is imposed on a department or on an individual to "correct" a problem. Now, I'm sure that in some cases it actually has an effect but for the most part, it's just a department covering it's rear-end. And not to point fingers at Philly specifically but.....Philly is a strange place. A lot of people there are just...well....not too bright. Not everyone, of course, but there are a lot of rowdy, clueless people there. Maybe it comes from their city being in the shadow of much bigger and more popular cities. Who knows? It's a well known fact that their sports fans are....crude, rude and ignorant. They do have that reputation. It's not something that I've made up. Maybe it carries over to more of their population. Philly once had a GOAL chapter there. Twice, maybe. But it (they) didn't last at all. And I don't see anyone stepping forward to begin a new one anytime soon. Which is sad. Let's hope everything works out for this particular officer and others in the same situation.
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Post by bluepride on Feb 25, 2015 10:24:35 GMT -5
Gay cops, firefighters get partner pension benefits By a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System board of directors voted to extend survivor benefits to same-sex couples, a move met with hugs of joy and applause by those who had fought so hard for it.
In the end, it was the addition of just four words: "And any other state."
With those words, gay Dallas police officers and firefighters gained the right to same-sex survivor benefits. It applies to couples legally married in other states.
"For us, this was a huge deal, because we wanted the peace of mind that any other officers have that their families are taken care of," said Dallas police Officer Monica Cordova.
The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System board on Tuesday agreed that the partners of same-sex couples should be entitled to the same benefits as married couples.
The board's vote came during a special meeting of the pension board. City Council member Philip Kingston made the motion, with Council colleague Tennell Atkins seconding the motion.
"Bad guys and fires just do not care if you're gay or straight," Kingston said after the vote. "We need to make sure that we recognize that, and treat them equally."
In a statement, board chairman George Tomasovic said the decision simply was the "right thing to do."
"It ensures the DPFP remains in compliance with federal law, but more importantly, it resolves a long-standing issue of fairness that has frustrated many of our members ... The board's past reluctance to extend same-sex benefits was based solely on legal issues. Fortunately, recent developments have led the board to believe we can provide LGBT members the benefits they deserve without exposing DPFP to undue legal liabilities."
Wednesday's vote was the culmination of months of wrangling and often-contentious debate.
Cordova and several other police officers began pushing the issue last October when they sought to put it on the ballot for a membership vote. Last year, in a 7-5 vote, the board voted to not to put the same-sex measure it the November ballot, saying they needed more time to educate the membership.
Cordova and others kept pushing, attended nearly every meeting, and made their voices heard.
The pressure mounted earlier this month as the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas voted to extend benefits to same-sex couples.
That same week, the Police and Fire Pension System board argued about the issue for hours as public safety personnel in the audience angrily demanded action. Council members Kingston, Lee Kleinman and Scott Griggs argued for immediately extending benefits to same-sex partners. Other members of the board wanted to wait until the Supreme Court decides the issue.
The board ultimately voted to ask the Dallas City Attorney's office for an opinion, subject to a vote by the membership.
In that legal opinion, City Attorney Warren Ernst wrote that "federal law requires the (Dallas Police and Fire Pension) fund to provide joint and survivor benefits to spouses of members, regardless of the gender of the member and her or his spouse."
Ernst cited recent court rulings that concluded states may not deny equal protection to same sex-couples. He concluded that a lawsuit "alleging a violation of the member's constitutional rights of equal protection and due process under the U.S. Constitution would likely be successful."
"It's kind of like, if you earn a benefit, why would you take a benefit away from someone?" Atkins asked after the meeting.
Kleinman said it was ultimately not necessary to seek a vote of the membership, because the pension plan "does say that if we are complying with federal law, the board can make amendments to the plan without going to the members."
Cordova and the others said they were surprised and pleased by the unanimous vote.
"This is about our family, and it was great to see the support of our larger family," Cordova said. "We had a lot of support from our co-workers, and that was great to see and finally put and an end to this."
Cordova and her police officer spouse were legally married in Massachusetts. She said the ruling it gives their whole family a little bit of extra financial security. She submitted a copy of her marriage certificate to the city's personnel department on Wednesday.
"I'm happy for my mom that she gets her equal rights," said the officer's son, 14-year-old Diego Cordova, who attended the meeting with her.
READ ARTICLE HERE: Gay cops, firefighters get partner pension benefitsGreg referenced this situation in the "What Good Happpened Today" area a few days ago. Glad to say that things went well and the bennies will be forthcoming! Good Job by all! |
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