New York City hospital police officers are facing a severe crisis of low pay that is putting our public and officers at risk. Our current starting salary of $34,834 is below the poverty line in NYC, and our top pay of $50,207 is only marginally near the poverty line, which does not accurately reflect the high cost of living in this city.
The New York City Government Poverty Measure 2019 has highlighted the dire situation we are in. Hospital police officers play a critical role in ensuring public safety in all city hospitals. However, our low pay has caused a staffing crisis, with many officers leaving the job.
We are urging city officials to take notice of our plight and include the following key points in contract negotiations: a fair and equitable pay scale that accurately reflects the high cost of living in New York City, as calculated by the city’s 2019 poverty measure; a compensation package that reflects the dedication and commitment of hospital police officers to ensuring public safety in all city hospitals; a solution to the severe staffing crisis caused by low pay, which is putting our public and officers at risk.
As minority workers living in the city, we cannot afford to live comfortably with our current wages. We are calling on the news media and city officials to help us bring attention to this issue and secure a fair compensation package that reflects the value of our services. We thank you for your attention to this matter, and we hope that you will join us in our fight for fair and equitable pay. Officer Christian P. Lopez, Hospital Police Division 2, Bellevue Hospital
Sidelined women
Whitestone: Really? Full-page ads, day after day: “Rosie was right. We can do it,” congratulating women for “getting it done every day.” Thank you, but you couldn’t find a page to print the women’s NCAA Tournament brackets? Your competitors did! Patricia McGlinchey
No gimmes
Manhattan: In my view, the rule changes have broadly been very good for the game of baseball. But an inadvertent drawback is that the steal of third base has become a virtual “gimme.” That’s not good for the game. One suggestion might be to draw a white line, say, 30 feet beyond second base, and dictate that runners cannot take a lead beyond that point. It’s just a minor tweak to address an unanticipated and isolated negative byproduct of the otherwise positive rule changes. Ken Blomster
Pretty pitcher
Brooklyn: Who is Kodai Senga? Every New Yorker should know. He is handsome and has a great personality. You can see him on TV every five or six days. He needs a fan club. Lois Getz
Priced out
Staten Island: A note to the Brooklyn Cyclones owners, who I’m sure can’t figure out why the park is always empty: Maybe look at the $17 can of beer as an indication. At a Single A park with more than 75% unoccupied seats — you’re nuts. Fans are not ATMs. You are badly in need of better management. Tom McGuire
Low-maintenance
Bronx: Someone said that the reason the KKK no longer wear white hoods and sheets is that no one knew how to operate a washing machine! Well, they hit on the idea of a new uniform, one that didn’t require washing: a red baseball cap with the symbol “MAGA” — problem solved! Robert Adams
Bronx: Voicer James McCaffery’s letter is a perfect example of MAGA imbecility, blaming the indictment of Donald Trump on, among others, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, apparently unaware that the grand jury was made up of American citizens, not Democratic politicians. Like many people who watch right-wing media, he misuses words like Marxism and “American-hating” to describe people who follow the rule of law. This seemingly total ignorance of the clear criminality and profound selfishness of Trump is why his followers are described as a cult. Randall Borra
Indefensible
Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: I was beginning to believe some of our readers had finally received the message regarding the Orange One. Alas, then I go on to read the letter from Voicer James McCaffrey and the same old garbage party line. When you want to defend someone who has done so much harm to our country, you should not go against our law enforcers or the people who protect our Constitution. Open up your eyes and see who has broken the law to try and make himself king of the country. To question our system and our voting rights, to have his minions attack our very center of our democracy, to keep secret documents to perhaps share them with his buddy Vladimir Putin and so on — isn’t this why European leaders kept turning their backs on him and wanted nothing to do with him? Rose S. Wilson
Theological debate
Itasca, Ill.: Picture two groups of prominent Christians, one headed by former Vice President Mike Pence, the other by former President Jimmy Carter. Imagine that God has called a meeting between these two still-living groups for a not-dead-yet chat about scriptural meaning versus human interpretation of it. Examining Pence’s “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order” stance alongside Carter’s understated but equally devout view of Christian duty could be instructive. I don’t have the theological chops to contribute to such a forum, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall. You might have your own equally legitimate Christian group you’d present before God. There are many my-way-or-the-highway Christians with an iron-clad grip on their view of who enters heaven and who doesn’t. Such a forum might determine which of these two groups, if either, other believers should follow. Do any of us really know for sure? Jim Newton
Doesn’t line up
Babylon, L.I.: In my opinion, Democrats have a contradiction of ethics when they support gun control laws and still encourage abortion rights. Laura Marie Bowman
Nowhere near
Jackson Heights: Re “Kenyans fight oil exploration plans in hopes of saving critical inland delta” (April 11): Did anyone read the story before a headline was written and it was published? If so, do they understand that Kenya is about 2,000 miles from Namibia and Botswana, the countries the article is actually about? The story was filed from Kenya, but the actual article has nothing to do with that country. Christy Acevedo
Beyond the pail
Queens Village: Your article on dog poop (“What’s the poop? Dogs’,” April 11) is fake looking! First, a strange-looking clean, silver metal trash pail placed right next to a silver metal bench? There’s no labeling on the pail, and our NYC trash pail doesn’t even look like that! It’s even clean on the bottom inside! No other human garbage in there? Is this a dog park trash pail? This is not an actual NYC garbage pail, as it looks too clean, or maybe it’s a new one? You can’t find a real-looking garbage pail in all of NYC, with human garbage spilling out onto the street? I pick up litter and deposit it at the nearest receptacle all the time, and I never see one litter pail that looks like the one in that picture! It’s phony looking! Mice and rats breed from human food garbage. If people are going to be slobs, that’s what you get. Joan Silaco
Battery blitz
Blauvelt, N.Y. More people, including children, will perish in New York’s boroughs because of the growing number of e-bike lithium battery fires, fueled by cheaper, poorly made units and storing/charging inside homes. The electrolyte fluid in these batteries is highly combustible, toxic and able to reignite, making it difficult for residents and firefighters. Storing or improperly charging an e-bike battery is like having an open can of gasoline and flicking a cigarette butt. So far, there have been 59 such fires in the city, resulting in five deaths, including two children. Properly made batteries include thermistors, which prevent heat overload and fires, but knockoffs usually do not. The FDNY would do a great public service if it undertook a house-to-house multi-language leaflet campaign listing the dos and don’ts of e-bike lithium battery purchase, charging and care. Unfortunately, Daily News stories are not enough.

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