Overblown " Big Scandal in New York"-- Allegations of Fraud by Supposedly Disabled Cops and Firemen Related to Sept. 11-- BBC

I am only running this story because it is one kind of news that alas is not so much a judgment on NYC firemen and policemen but on the whole culture we live in

The actions of a few bad apples (or even a bunch of bad apples)--

I mean, consider the scores of thousands of first responders in NYC and the huge number of them who sacrificed their lives on September 11--

And the refusal of Congress to honor the legitimate claims of those  injured during the attack or suffering from after effects of the Search and Rescue Operation...

I want to make sure everyone who reads this takes it in context of the larger picture...

Stories like this make money for the media and I feel we have to report on events like this the better to correct them but they in no way reflect any negative judgment on my part of the wonderful city workers we have here in New York City--

I guess I have my doubts too how stories like this provide fodder for Tea Party Morons and Clowns like Rush Limbaugh 

Do you realize how few first responders ever really got compensated for so long, and how many died without any help at all? 

There are too many jerks and mean spirited people around who are all to eager to besmirch the FDNY and the NYPD and prate on and on about the need to "cut the budget" even when it means losing what fire and police protection we have.

First, see this website for first responders 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/911-first-responders/

Watch this video made sometime back

http://video.pix11.com/Less-than-1-of-911-first-responders-got-compensation--25384666http://video.pix11.com/Less-than-1-of-911-first-responders-got-compensation--25384666

The chips have to fall where they may here but slandering so many fine people is disgraceful and an incredible insult to all those who died or were badly injured immediately on September 11 or shortly afterward, to say nothing of those whose cancer etc. took years to become manifest. 

7 January 2014 Last updated at 18:50 ET

Share this page

• Email
• Print

• Share
• Facebook
• Twitter

Dozens of former New York police and firemen in 9/11 disability fraud

 

 Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance labelled the alleged disability fraud "shocking" (file photo)

 

Dozens of US former emergency service workers have been arrested in a sweeping fraud 

 investigation involving federal disability benefits, New York authorities say.

Prosecutors say 72 police officers, eight firefighters and five corrections officers are among those charged.

Some reportedly falsely claimed disabling conditions arising from the 11 September 2001 attacks.
The fraud is believed to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The brazenness is shocking," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said on Tuesday.

"Many participants cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of September 11, dishonouring the first responders who did serve their city at the expense of their own health and safety," he added.

Incriminating photos

  Four men, including a retired police officer and a disability consultant with a New York detective's union, appeared in court on Tuesday on grand larceny charges.

The defendants, allegedly the ringleaders of the fraud operation, were released on bail of up to $1m (£609,690).

Those men stand accused of coaching the former emergency workers on how to feign mental health problems and fail memory tests in an effort to draw disability benefits, collecting tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.

One retired police officer told doctors he suffered panic attacks and was unable to leave his house - only to post photographs of himself on social media riding a jet ski.

Another retired policeman collected a disability pension for a neck injury - and then went on to open a martial arts studio

Yet another, who claimed he was incapable of social interaction, was found to be running a cannoli stand at a street festival.