I Know What Stress Is Now

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

Two years into his career as a Dallas police officer, Mike woke up in the back of an ambulance fighting paramedics after having a nocturnal seizure.

The emergency room doctor asked him if he was under a lot of stress.

Not really, Mike told the doctor who responded, “Your wife told me you just got back from out of state burying one of your partners who shot himself. She said you are working all of your extra job shifts and working on covering his also. She told me she’s pregnant with your third child and she needs some tests due to an abnormal sonogram.”

Then there was that call he had answered earlier in that evening when he drove up to a house engulfed in flames and desperately struggled to break through the burglar bars.

“Smoke was pouring from the house and I choked on it trying to gain entry because I had heard someone scream at one point from the inside of the burning house,” he said. “When I was throwing up in the yard after the firemen arrived, I didn’t know if it was from the smoke I had inhaled, the fact that they were pulling a dead family from the home or a combination of both.”

The emergency room doctor asked Mike if he even knew what stress was.

“I thought what a stupid question.,” Mike said. “I knew stress. I saw people in stress every day. People call 911 when they’re in stress.  We show up. We fix stress.”

Because of his seizures, Mike was put on limited duty in dispatch for a year a half. That assignment meant no extra jobs to help pay the bills. 

“I didn't always feel that I was treated fairly by the city,” he said, “but I believed everyone has doubts about their employer at some point in that amount of time.    I encouraged my three sons to do public service and two are firemen.  I always told them you won't get rich, but you will help people and you get a pension when you retire.”    

Within a year of his retirement, the city of Dallas and Mayor Mike Rawlings is trying to change the laws so that they can confiscate his promised pension.

“I now worry that I won't get what I was promised,” he said. “I know my job possibilities will be limited by my age and the epilepsy.    I worry more for my sons if we live in a society where they might work their whole life, plan and save, then retire, and after all that, get the deal changed.”

“I hope I didn't mislead them,” Mike said.  “One thing though: I do know what stress is now.”

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #DPFP

Who's Got Their Six Now?

Editor's note: Meet Brent, another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

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

Will The Real Millionaire Please Stand Up?

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid. And, no Mr. Mayor, unlike you, Ben is not a millionaire.

Ben left the department just shy of serving the city for 31 years and just before he turned 55. 

When he left, he was not a millionaire as Dallas City Mayor and millionaire Mike Rawlings would lead you to believe.

Ben doesn’t live extravagantly. When he retired, he was only in the city’s DROP pension program for four years and nine months. With some planning, Ben and his wife figured they could supplement his basic pension with a $1,500 a month draw from DROP until they could reach her 65th birthday and Medicare. Then, the hefty premium from the city insurance would drop and they could survive on his basic pension and her social security.

Now, the city and Mayor Rawlings wants to confiscate Ben’s DROP money and garnish his pension checks.

“They have forsaken the retired Police and Firefighters who gave much to the city during their careers,” Ben said. “I am not and never will have a million dollars, Mayor Rawlings. Your statements about us begin greedy are false and incorrect.”

Because they have been “led down a path of untruths by the present city administration, council and others in the city,” the citizens of Dallas don’t realize the financial disaster their first responders will face.

“I will lose my home,” Ben said. “I will not be able to pay my bills, and I will not be able to take care of my totally disabled son who cannot take care of himself.”

That leaves Ben with only one question: “Hey Mayor, you want to help take care of us since you are a millionaire?”


#PoundOfFlesh, #savethepension, #backtheblue

Please Don't Count Us Out

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas want you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

Mona retired in 2003 after just under 24 years of service. Her husband John joined her a few years later after giving 35 years to the Dallas Police Department and its citizens.

In 2004, John was diagnosed with a very rare and incurable genetic brain disease call Spinal Cerebellar Ataxia. Since his retirement, his vision has deteriorated and his walking has declined. He now must use a rolling walker to get around, but in the future, John knows he will need a wheelchair.

They have depended upon their DROP pension account to supplement and pay needed expenses including a recent master bathroom remodel that was necessary to make it more accessible for John.

“We have been counting on this money for future issues with John's health, such as making our vehicle accessible for his mobility issues, purchasing him a scooter, etc.,” Mona said. “In addition, we are counting on this money to take care of my 81-year-old mother who resides in Tennessee, when she is unable to take care of herself.”

“It will be really devastating to our family if this money that we counted on is taken away,” she said.

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue

He Shouldn't Have To Beg

Editor's note: Here is another first responder that Mayor Rawlings and the city of Dallas wants you to believe is greedy, self-serving and overpaid.

Mike never flinched from gunfire.

In 1991, he and another officer were shot when they responded to a robbery call where a family was being held hostage. 

Doctors removed a .45-caliber bullet from his right hip, and to this day, he said, “I can always tell weather changes.”

He returned to patrol because “I had to get back and work with my co-workers who pulled my butt out of that shooting range.”

To Mike, being a police officer was “the best job ever. Your fellow officers are your second family for life.”

In 2001 and again in 2004, Mike faced gunfire, answering two shooting calls involving bank robbers. For his actions, Mike received The Medal of Valor.

“No police were shot in either of these, thank God,” he said, “as shots were fired literally all over the city.”

After 34 years, the second generation police officer retired in 2011. One of his sons is still a Dallas police officer.

In May of 2014, Mike was diagnosed with ALS.

“That’s a hard pill to swallow,” he said, “but my wife and I put our big pants on, and we've plowed ahead. Now, we hear our pension that the city helped set up is in trouble. We don't get social security and that has kept me from receiving disability and qualifying for early Medicare.”

“I'm not gonna beg for anything we haven't earned,” Mike said, “but my wife and I need what was promised.”

#PoundOfFlesh #savethepension #backtheblue #DPFP