An Officer's Tale: There's Another Side to Dallas' Failing Police and Fire Pension Fund

I've heard from several retired Dallas police officers who, in the wake of a financial crisis that's threatening to bankrupt the whole city, feel like they're being cast as villains.They sense, perhaps correctly, that the public perception is they're living high on the hog off the taxpayer and off the more than half a billion dollars in lump sum payments pensioners have pulled from the plan since August."There's nobody speaking for us," one retired Dallas police sergeant told me confidentially. "All these articles being written are about all these fire and police millionaires....They're all being vilified."That's precisely why Tamysia Page, the wife of former Dallas Sr. Cpl Lester Page, called me."It just seems that what I've been reading in the paper, especially the comments from the public, I feel like they don't like the idea of a police officer living over a certain standard or having a certain amount of money in savings," she said. "Lester has worked hard his whole life. He's worked as many hours as he could put into a week, and he did that to take care of his family."And now, she said, her 68-year-old husband, a former Officer of the Year who helped nab the serial White Rock Rapist in 2004, is battling Alzheimer's, which he was diagnosed with a couple years ago.  Continue reading...