In March of 1972, Brent, his father and an assistant city attorney all went down to the Dallas County Court House to witness the signing of documents to allow the 20-year-old boy from Oklahoma to join the Dallas Police Academy.
“I still could not buy bullets or drink legally, but I could
carry a gun and arrest bad guys,” he recalled. “As a young boy, I always wanted
to a policeman. I just never grew out of it.”
He would have to wait until he was 21 before he was allowed
to patrol on his own after two young officers, Officer Carl Cooke, 20, and
Officer Allen Perry Camp, 21, were killed in the line of duty in separate
incidents that year.
“I always felt this was so symbolic of how some very young men were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their community and the citizens of Dallas,” he said.
“During my career, I was spit on, assaulted, had guns pointed at me and was shot at,” Brent said. “Several friends were killed in the line of duty. Several friends were severely injured. I have always felt it was only by the grace of God, that I survived.”
He retired in 2008 after 36 years of service. The actions, threats and lawsuits by Mayor Mike Rawlings and the actions by the Taxpayers For A Fair Pension have completely demoralized him, Brent said.
“My job--my life--was being a Dallas police officer for 36 years, working deep nights, evenings, crazy hours, the weekends, holidays, the 1984 Republican National Convention,” he said. "I depend on the pension from the Dallas Police Department to provide for my wife of 43 years and me.”
“I felt I had the backs of the citizens of Dallas for 36 years," Brent said. "We need the city and the citizens to have our backs now.”
#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue
“I always felt this was so symbolic of how some very young men were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their community and the citizens of Dallas,” he said.
“During my career, I was spit on, assaulted, had guns pointed at me and was shot at,” Brent said. “Several friends were killed in the line of duty. Several friends were severely injured. I have always felt it was only by the grace of God, that I survived.”
He retired in 2008 after 36 years of service. The actions, threats and lawsuits by Mayor Mike Rawlings and the actions by the Taxpayers For A Fair Pension have completely demoralized him, Brent said.
“My job--my life--was being a Dallas police officer for 36 years, working deep nights, evenings, crazy hours, the weekends, holidays, the 1984 Republican National Convention,” he said. "I depend on the pension from the Dallas Police Department to provide for my wife of 43 years and me.”
“I felt I had the backs of the citizens of Dallas for 36 years," Brent said. "We need the city and the citizens to have our backs now.”
#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue
7 comments:
What about this story is supposed to be the truth? This amongst all the other facebook posts is just an ancedotal account of a police officer working their day to day job. Why does no one want to go after those who duped you into the whole "gold coin" fiasco in the first place. Had rawlings not alerted people of the fraud that was taking place, are you confident this pension would have been around 10 years from now?
" ...just an ancedotal account of a police officer working their day to day job."
The truth is that on a day to day basis first responders make Dallas a decent place to live and work. These days come at a great sacrifice to themselves and their families.
I did the job 28 years, I don't have a "golden coin". The pension was offered in exchange for the day to day hard work. This is about the mayor and his wealthy developer cronies greed.
These officers and families are real people that rely on this pension, it's shameful that the mayor would leave with nothing for all of the hard work.
What are the agreements made by the COD worth?
Anonymous, one of the points you are missing is that the Mayors who are so vocally against this pension are the ones who sat by and watched it go down the drain. Rawlings didn't alert anyone to anything other than the fact that he and other Mayors turned a blind eye to what was happening until it was too late to intervene and have positive results. Instead of him "going after" the people who tanked the fund, he is going after the people who sacrificed lives, marriages,and relationships to protect the citizens of Dallas, while trusting the people on the board to have their backs.
The fact that this poster did so anonymously tells me all I need to know about him/her. Sir or Ma'am, say you were an accountant, worked for a certain company for 30 years, then retired, planning your retirement life around the pension you were promised throughout your career. Say that pension guaranteed you a cost of living increase of 4% of the base pension amount for life. Say, about 10 years into your guaranteed pension retirement the economy turned bad and someone with only partial control of that pension used his/her full power of position and publicity to try to lower your COLA and go back and recover the COLA you had been paid for the past 10 years and make you pay it back. Would that be ok with you? Would you willingly agree to have your pension downgraded? Would you willingly do so because the company you worked for decided that would make that company more prosperous? That's what I thought....
👏🏼
I guess you think it is funny that first responders would risk their lives, health, and families to protect the Citizens of the City of Dallas. That to do so is nothing more than an "anecdotal account" of their day to day job. What you don't, or can't realize is that first responders don't have a day to day job. Every time they leave their home they do not know, for certain, that they will be returning. This takes a toll on them, but especially on their families. The "gold coin" fiasco, as you describe the pension, was set up with the approval of Mayor, City Council, State Legislature, and IRS. Now Rawlings wants to scrap it, and go after retirement savings accounts of people who have already served the City, and retired. He is not the savior of the pension, once he became Mayor he became part of the problem. Neither he, nor Miller, Kirk, Lepperts did anything to solve the problem. Had they stepped up years ago, we would not be facing the size situation we are today. Thank you for visiting the Save The Pension Blog.
I suggest that everything about this story is the true, and I believer the human interest aspects are as important to the Pension Fund dilemma, as "gold coins". It is a moral and ethical issue as well. Can you not understand that the Mayors decisions have sever consequences that harm others: people who are undeserving of mistreatment?
Mayor Rawlings has exacerbated the Pension Fund issue. His bombastic assertions that Police and Fire pensions are greedy, self-serving people who voted overly generous benefits for themselves is simply a lie. Nothing could be further from the truth. His draconian "claw back" solution will force many Police and Fire pensioner into financial ruin. The Mayor is unwilling to fairly and honestly negotiate with the pension board. He has stone walled every reasonable resolution to the problem. The Mayor is a big part of the problem, not the bell ringer.
In reading the human interest stories on this forum, I believe it highly unlikely that such people would be unethical. More likely, they have lived lives predicted on doing what is right and at great sacrifice. The Mayor should learn from their example.
Post a Comment