Because the cops' pensions are based on what they earned in their last 12 months with the department, many are cashing in while the going is good. The average cop made $50,000 extra this year, translating into a nice padding for the retirement package of the brutes in blue.

And don't think for a moment they haven't earned the money officially piling up in their bank accounts from paychecks received from the city (there's no tally on other sources of income). Trying to stay awake while sitting in cop cars that block both ends of streets in front and back of all the city's police stations 24 hours a day; standing in groups on street corners while the weather was warm, looking for someone to mess with; harassing immigrants and checking IDs; racing around the Big Apple with sirens blaring, acting like they own the streets; and providing bodyguards for bigwigs--it's all just pushing the bullies to the limit, news stories say.

The added expenditures, officials note, are expected to boost the city's budget deficit to as much as $4 billion next year, but, they say, it's essential for security.

Signaling more attacks on working people, mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg paid visits after election day to the heads of two of the city's major unions--Randi Weingarten, president of the 80,000-member United Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, administrator of District 37, the city's largest municipal union. The teachers have been working without a contract since November 2000 and have refused to accept the concessionary package on wages and hours demanded by the Giuliani administration.

"Beyond the potential pressure of negotiating a contract," noted the New York Times, "Mr. Bloomberg may find himself returning to these unions to push for cost-cutting concessions that could help him balance New York's books."  
 
Network's prowar coverage
In another development, the president of Cable News Network (CNN), Walter Isaacson, issued a warning to CNN reporters not to present too much of the truth about the impact of the U.S. assault on Afghanistan.

Isaacson's memo instructs CNN journalists who air footage of scenes of destruction wrought by U.S. bombs on Afghan villages and cities to then always "talk about how the Taliban have harbored the terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people."

Daniel Schorr, senior news analyst for National Public Radio, expressed his objections to this policy in a recent debate on this topic sponsored by the Brookings Institution. "You ask, let us remind you these people are responsible for killing 5,000 people," he said. "Which people? The people in this destroyed building. Is it relevant?"  
 
Figures on detainees to be withheld
Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced November 8 that it will no longer publicly issue a running tally of the number of people cop agencies have taken into custody around the country since September 11. In early November the department had admitted to detaining 1,182 people. Federal authorities have never made public the names of those detained, where they are being held, or the reason for their arrests. Not a single one of these individuals have been charged with anything having to do with the September 11 attack.

Under the federal government's new policy, officials will now only provide figures on how many people are being held at any given time on charges of violating immigration laws and how many are in federal custody. It will say nothing about what is the largest group of detainees--those rounded up by FBI agents and other state and local police agencies.  
 
 
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