PAX Centurion - January / February 2013

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • January/February 2013 • Page 7 Secretary’s Spread: Patrick M. Rose, BPPA Secretary It’s 2013 and we’re still waiting for a new contract You, as members of the Union, DO NOT VOTE on an interest arbitration award. No one can promise anyone on the amount we will be awarded, the organization and the committee can only tell you what we are arguing for. As far as the rule, law, practice etc. of a time period dictating retroactive money, THERE IS NONE! Please, once and for all, stop listening to the ‘Guard Room’ lawyers and contract experts. Rumors are just that, rumors! T he NewYear has arrived! The year 2013, wow, who would’ve thunk it, 2013 and still without a contract! As we near the end of our third year without a new collective bargaining agree- ment, rumors are rampant about how much we’ll get, when the bar- gaining will be finished, when we will vote on the new contract and oh yah, (I love this one), the rumor that the city has stalled bargaining because of the “law” or “rule” that doesn’t allow retroactive money after three years, etc. etc. etc. Rumors aside, the facts, as previously stated in many forums, are simple; the Bargaining Committee has entered into an agreement with the City, the JLMC and the appointed Arbitrator to various meeting dates between now and the end of April. If, (and that’s a BIG if), all parties have presented their case to theAr- bitrator by the established end date, theArbitrator will have sixty days to render a decision. After theArbitrator’s decision and recommenda- tions are presented, the City Council will have thirty days to vote on accepting and paying for the decision, barring a miracle, the absolute EARLIEST that we will have a new bargaining agreement is July 2013, which is OVER three years since the last one expired!You, as members of the Union, DO NOTVOTE on an interest arbitration award. No one can promise anyone on the amount we will be awarded, the organization and the committee can only tell you what we are arguing for. As far as the rule, law, practice etc. of a time period dictating retroactive money, THERE IS NONE! Please, once and for all, stop listening to the ‘Guard Room’ lawyers and contract experts. Rumors are just that, rumors!Your Bargaining Committee: Tom Nee, Ron MacGillivray, Mike Leary, Chris Broderick and Larry Calderone are your representatives bargaining with the city and presenting our case to theArbitrator, no one else. Thank God that we still patrol some of the South Boston water- front. Lucky enough for one soul that Boston Police Officer Eddie Norton of District 6 was patrolling the area on December 21, 2012. Eddie responded to a radio call about a person in the water in the Boston channel canal. Upon arrival in the cold, pouring, freezing rain, Eddie observed a young lady in the canal, struggling to maintain herself above water and alive within the frigid waters of the canal. Without hesitation, Eddie handed his gun belt to a fellow Officer and jumped approximately twenty feet, into what could only be described as freezing water. Another Officer on scene threw him a life pre- server from the nearby ‘Tea Party Museum’ and Eddie swam to the panicked, drowning victim. Eddie was able to secure this young lady and keep her afloat with the life preserver. He was able to calm her enough, which gained the necessary time for the BFD divers to arrive and enter the water to remove both the victim and Eddie Norton. This woman is alive today because a Boston Police Officer was working his beat, his sector, his piece of our city! Heroic actions, indeed they were, however, if that young lady was two blocks to the east, she would most likely be dead right now, because of politics. Because of politics, we are still not protecting all of our citizens on the South Boston waterfront. We can only hope, with the appointment of Sheriff Andrea Cabral as the new Secretary of Public Safety for the state, we will finally have a real law enforcement officer at the helm of Massa- chusetts Public Safety that can make some sense out of this ridiculous situation along the Boston waterfront. Once and for all, Massachu- setts politicians have to correct their error and change the law that keeps Boston Police Officers from policing their own city! Errors are made but, errors can be corrected. Just the other night I saw another glaring political error. I was walking through our beautiful downtown area with my wife, enjoying the city sights when I observed a Boston Park Ranger, not a Boston Police Officer, but an ill equipped, undertrained, unarmed person wearing a uniform being mistaken by many as a Police Officer. I observed this numerous times during our stroll and was somewhat embarrassed for the City as I observed this individual sarcastically rebuff visitors to our fair city. Just seeing the mount brought back the memory of our ‘First in the Nation Mounted Unit’, that was unceremoniously disbanded and kicked to the curb, so to speak, not so many years ago. A fantastic tool of law enforcement and crowd control. Ambassadors of our wonderful city, patrolling the streets and Parks with fully trained, fully equipped, proud Police Officers in the saddle. Police Officers prepared to assist and render aide when neces- sary. Police Officers and their Mounts acting as ambassadors and protectors of the City. This City deserves to have their mounted unit return. Money may have been an issue in past, but that excuse can no longer be used. If we can afford the Park Rangers, then we can afford to share those facilities and have our unit return. This is the only major city in the country that is still building and grow- ing, this city can afford the Mounted Unit, this city deserves the Mounted Unit and whoever convinced his Honor the Mayor to do away with the unit should be ashamed! Bring back the ‘First in the Nation Mounted Unit’ now. I hope everyone enjoys the new PAX format. We have promised for quite a while that things would change and we would work harder to put out a product that would be worthy of you, the Boston Police Patrolman. I believe the last issue set the tone of the new PAX and this magazine style shows our commitment to an improved product. We too know that errors occur, but believe that errors can be corrected. Stay safe out there, back each other up and remember your first duty is to go home safely to your loved ones!