Barry Levinson
Here is part of his comment in response to a posting by David Curlee about the proposed changes to the Fullerton Firefighters Contract Agreement.
“With regard to Curlee’s gratuitous comments about pension contributions, let me just say that my first real job in life was as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service on the Angeles National Forest where I earned some money to help out with college expenses. The one think that I learned from that experience is that firefighters earn every penny they receive in salary and benefits. They work under the most adverse of conditions, and deal with more tragedy in a week than most of us see in a lifetime. Many of them die early from cancer and heart disease.”
The gratuitous comment relates to Curlee mentioning that one way to solve the problem of reducing the number of fire vehicles from 6 to 5 within Fullerton would be for the Firefighters themselves to pay more for their contributions for their extremely generous taxpayer funded pension. To a lefty like Dr. Shapiro, that statement must have been blasphemy.
Shapiro
But by following the advice in Rules for Radicals by Communist Saul Allinsky, Dr. Shapiro is accusing David Curlee of exactly what he himself has just done above. He makes a totally unsubstantiated and I believe basically factually incorrect statement to support the Fullerton firefighters. That sir is not only gratuitous it is false.
He states referring to firemen that “many of them die early from cancer and heart disease”. And Dr. many of them live to be 90 years old as well collecting 90% of their final pay plus health care for the next 40 years in retirement. In every group some die younger than the average and some die older than the average as you obviously know sir. He also stated that “They work under the most advert of conditions, and deal with more in a week than most of us see in a lifetime.” I guess Dr. Shapiro believes that firefighters who work a three day shift weekly and deal with a few if any dangerous fires in a typical year in Fullerton is hardly ‘the most adverse of working conditions”. It has been statistically proven that working at a 7-11 Convenience store is much more dangerous than being the typical firefighter, yet they make minimum wage, rather than the 6 figure salaries and the early rich retirements that all Fullerton firefighters receive from the taxpayers of Fullerton.
Nearly two-thirds of all homicides in the retail trade sector during the 2003–2008 period occurred in two types of retail establishments: food and beverage stores (41.4 percent) and gasoline stations (22.0 percent). The other third were distributed among 10 other types of retailers, including motor vehicle and parts dealers (8.4 percent), clothing and clothing accessories stores (6.8 percent), and general merchandise stores (4.9 percent).
Finally police unions have been lying to the public that police officers die earlier than the average man in America. False! In fact the last study showed that on average a police officer’s life expectancy is about the same as the average male in America.
No one is saying that a firefighter or a police job at times can be a dangerous profession. But greatly overstating that danger and lying about their average life expectancy and overstating how bad their work conditions are is simply muddying up the waters at best or lying at worst.
SHAME ON SHAPIRO
Shame on you Dr Shapiro, to throw out so much misinformation in a failed attempt to try to attack David Curlee’s legitimate concerns about our fire department.
ESTABLISHMENT SHAPIRO
But I am sure Saul Allinsky would be proud of you sir. I for one am not!
#1 by Anonymous on March 10, 2018 - 3:42 pm
The more Joe and Barry are attacked with brainless name calling, the more I realize just how much this site ticks off the Fullerton establishment.
Kudos to the both of you and thank you for respecting the 1st Amendment even for people who have never had an intelligent thought in their entire lives such as Katt Maraffa.
#2 by Joe Imbriano on March 10, 2018 - 6:12 pm
We don’t block anyone here. We also deal with the truth and we put our names behind what we say.
#3 by Ronald on March 10, 2018 - 7:34 pm
That says alot about this site. You know you don’t have to be able to agree but you should be able to agree to have a conversation. Anytime you have censorship, it shows that those involved in the censorship are threatened by the content or the potential exposure the content presents to their hidden agenda.
I know of one prime example of extreme censorship with the Fullerton Observer. My wife is a subscriber and its on our kitchen table all the time.
It is really odd how I watch every council meeting just as I have for almost 20 years and there is never any mention of Joe or Barry in the paper. Other people are mentioned but these two men are left out All the time. I see Joe and Barry speaking and making good points and not a mention of their discussion in the paper.
Obviously the Fullerton Observer has an agenda. I think we all know what that agenda has been all along. Shame on Jane Rands for aligining herself with that paper. It just goes to show what she is all about too.
#4 by Barry Levinson on March 11, 2018 - 2:14 pm
Ronald thank you so much for bringing up the lack of coverage by the Fullerton Observer of the comments made by Joe and myself at the Fullerton City Council.
You may be interested in the fact that a few months ago right outside of City Hall I saw Jesse Le Tour in passing. I greeted him as we both know each other as he ran at the same time with me for City Council. We have always been friendly to each other when seeing each other in public.
I asked him very nicely if he did not mind clearing something up for me. I told him that I noticed that in past Fullerton Observer publications, Jesse would provide the names and comments of almost all public comment speakers, while at the same time failed to mention either Joe’s name or my name along with the points we made to the council. I told him again very nicely that I found that odd since he knows me number one and that I for instance speak much more frequently than the people he routinely identifies. He seemed a little taken aback by my directness. But his only comment was that he did not have the final say as to what went into his Public Comment column, inferring that it was Sharon Kennedy the editor in chief of the paper that was responsible for our absence in it. I ended the short conversation (with Joe listening to all of it) by asking him very nicely that going forward I would appreciate it if he would make it a point to try to ensure that all the public comments were discussed in his article going forward including ours. He seemed to nod his head as if he would do just that and we proceeded our separate ways.
Unfortunately, since Jesse’s Fullerton Public Comment articles still continue to shut our participation at city hall out of the Fullerton Observer, he as well as Sharon Kennedy have absolutely no excuse for their intentional slanted coverage of Public Comments at City Hall.
P.S. If it is Sharon Kennedy scrubbing mention of Joe and me from his column then if I were writing that column, I would quit for obvious journalistic integrity issues with the paper. If Jesse himself is not including us, then I have an issue with his journalistic integrity and fairness.
#5 by Jesse Le Tour? on March 12, 2018 - 6:17 pm
Given this, Mr. LeTour is a willing participant in journalistic censorship.
#6 by Joe Imbriano on March 13, 2018 - 11:19 am
Jesse Le Tour and Jane Rands write for the Observer. They are both active participants in Fullerton’s demise.
#7 by Anonymous on March 13, 2018 - 5:50 pm
What would they write? Local cranks call politicians names and rant about fake conspiracy theories again? Might as well ignore Joe and Barry.
#8 by Johnny Pilot on March 10, 2018 - 8:36 pm
Truth? Because The Bible Tells Me So.
The Earth isn’t flat, but your noggin is. Going to block this comment? It’s screen saved.
#9 by Anonymous on March 10, 2018 - 8:53 pm
That’s a hilarious lie. You definitely attempt to block people.