Severely injured police beseech State House in benefits battle
Two local police officers, forced to retire after facing death in the line of duty, are battling for a bill that would provide violently injured cops with benefits to spare them an added financial burden.
“Bob and I are fighters,” former ATF Agent Mario Oliveira told the Herald. “I think we were kept on Earth for a reason and that reason is our brothers and sisters. They are fighting on the streets, we’re still continuing fighting here at the State House.”
Oliveira was shot point-blank six times during a shootout in 2010, one bullet missing his heart by just two millimeters. He died twice on the operating table.
At the time, he had a 3-year-old child and a baby on the way. After months of recovery, he returned to his work with the Somerville Police Department and as a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent, only to have a heart attack related to his injuries eight months later.
Bob DeNapoli, a retired Woburn police officer, was also shot six times during a botched jewelry store robbery in 2011 and is now blind in one eye. Both said they felt “betrayed” when they had to fight to get benefits and base pay as they struggled to survive life-threatening injuries, anguished over how to provide for their wives and each of their three children.
The officers told their stories Tuesday to the Joint Committee on Public Service during a hearing at the State House, pushing for a piece of legislation filed by Sen. Cindy Friedman that would give severely injured police officers 100% of their regular pay until they reach retirement age and then 80% of their pension. They noted that if the bill passes, they won’t receive the benefits, but urged the committee to report it out favorably.
“This just can’t happen to another officer,” DeNapoli said. “I couldn’t even enjoy the fact that I had survived. I felt that between my city’s procrastination and the court’s delays my life was spiraling. I felt like I was being punished for surviving … that a police officer gave up his or her body and soul protecting their city or town, this is just no way to be treated.”
The kind of “violent act” that would qualify under this bill is uncommon, according to Friedman. Since 1948, just 53 public safety officers who were forced to retire after suffering severe injuries on the job received their compensation through special legislation, according to state data.
“It is unconscionable and, frankly, insulting that we force police officers who have suffered a life-altering injury to go through such a burdensome and emotionally straining process to receive the benefits necessary to sustain themselves and their families after such a tragic event,” said Friedman. “Surely, it is the least we can do.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2nCPEvT
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