Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
Access-A-Ride Renders Bike Lane Inaccessible
The UWS Gets Its Very Own Apple Store
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
Video: Close Encounters Above Central Park?
According to Pennsylvania authorities, a 21-year-old NYPD rookie cop stole $113,000 from a bank in Mulhenberg Township yesterday morning. Christian Torres was charged with robbery and held on $500,000 bail; he was also suspended from the NYPD.
The complaint described Torres wearing a black suit and approaching a bank employee who was arriving to work at 8 a.m., asking her about mortgage rates. She told him to wait until the bank opened, but he then forced his way in with a 9mm gun. Torres forced her and one of her colleagues to the vault.
Though Torres got away, a third employee had triggered the silent alarm. When he was pulled over, he said he was a NYPD cop, but the officers found the cash, his gun, a blond wig, and a derby hat in the car. Mulhenberg police officer Christopher Orvech said, "He was very calm, almost like he was going to talk his way out of it."
Torres' neighbors in Richmond Hill were shocked. One told the Post, "I'm shocked. That isn't like him. The cops came by a few times today, and I thought maybe he got into a fight. I can't believe he robbed a bank." But another cop complained about NYPD recruiting to the Daily News, "No matter what they say, we are getting a lot of losers. Anyone with any other options is taking another job. What's left are thugs and gangbangers who then get busted."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Gee, with a starting salary of $25K I can't imagine why the NYPD isn't getting better candidates. Can't the most famous city in the world afford a little more to protect its citizens?
Rookie mistake.
$113,000 equals over 450% of his yearly salary. Maybe he was hungry.
anybody care to (calmly) talk about why cops aren't paid a living wage in this town? i don't understand why any civilization wouldn't want good cops.
He robbed a bank, he deserves to do jail time.
Why are you fuckheads focusing on NYPD starting salaries?
maybe he did it for the lulz?!
600 dollars every two weeks.
That's a fucking disgrace.
anybody care to (calmly) talk about why cops aren't paid a living wage in this town? i don't understand why any civilization wouldn't want good cops.
I think the policeman's union is to blame here. There was only so much $ to go around, and so they opted to keep starting salaries absurdly low so those higher on the totem pole could get more. (If I'm not right in recollecting this, feel free to correct me). I'm sure they thought that would force the city to pony up more cash as recruiting suffered as a result. Meanwhile, we all suffer until this is resolved.
@Ph:
Read the 2nd to last sentence in this post:
"Anyone with any other options is taking another job."
"Other options" is code for a college degree, meaning college grads who are thinking about going into the NYPD are instead going for jobs in the FBI, state police, small towns where starting salaries are $55K, etc. Tthe most highly motivated candidates are going elsewhere; so in the overall pool of candidates you are going to have less goods eggs and the bad eggs are going to shine that much more brightly.
Apology accepted.
great story. compelling and rich.
when i was looking for a job, i thought about NYPD too, but with a wife who is a teaher, we'd basically have to live under a bridge like common trolls on those two salaries. if we call them heroes, shouldn't they be paid as such?
From the NYPD recruiting website:
http://www.nypd2.org/html/recruit/salary.html
(quote)
Start receiving full pay and benefits from your first day of recruit training ($25,100 per annum). Upon the completion of the Police Academy (six months), your annual salary increases to $32,700. Salaries will continue to increase every year and upon completion of 5½ years of service, base salary will increase to $59,588.
In addition to these base salaries, there is also overtime earning, holiday pay, night differential and uniform allowance.
(unquote)
I believe the average cop who's been on the job for six years makes in the range of $70K per year. Of course, if you get a promotion you will make even more money.
Not a bad deal--really.
More from the NYPD recruiting website:
"When including base salary, average overtime and night shift differential, holiday pay, and uniform allowance, a Police Officer earns over $35,000, on average, in the first year; $45,000, on average, in the second year; $77,000, on average, after 6 years.
1 in 6 uniformed members of the NYPD are Detectives. A Detective’s (3rd Grade) average earning is $100,000* (Promotion to Detective is not based on a promotional exam, it’s based on merit).
1 in 7 uniformed members of the NYPD are Sergeants. A Sergeant’s average earning is $100,000.
1 in 20 uniformed members of the NYPD are Lieutenants. A Lieutenant’s average earning is $122,000."
Cop don't need to rob banks to be criminals. They do it everyday by breaking laws and by enforcing the law as the please when they please.
They steal from taxpayers who expect them to do their job all the time, not just when they feel like it.
are those salary figures accurate, because maybe i'll rethink my position!
yes, it's accurate, please add in ALL the benefits
for what is basically an entry level job. and, that's what it is, just a Job. one can take it or shove it.
and this doesn't sound like a run of the mill 6k bank robbery. 113K is enough to buy a house in some states.
thank you just_saying i was about to copy & paste that stuff.
You're welcome, zodak.
The requirements for joining the NYPD are actually more stricter than they used to be. Recruits now have to have either 60 college credits from an accredited school or two years of full-time, active military service. No more high school dropouts like the "Dirty 30."
For those who weren't around 14 years ago, here's a glimpse of what it was like in the old-time NYPD:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E0DA1439F932A35753C1A962958260
Oh, excuse me. So he was making $32,700 a year. No excuse for robbing a bank and of course he will and should go to prison. But it's still a disgrace.
The unions and the city sold future generations of rookie cops down the river so that their members could get more now and the city could save a few million. But meanwhile it's eroding the NYPD from the bottom up, as well as other city police forces that follow the NYPD salary guidelines. It's hard to recruit enough city cops, and the ones that join often jump ship to Westchester or Long Island to make more money AFTER the city has paid to train them. It's a shortsighted policy.
cops and teachers should be paid more. it would pay back in the long run.
don't forget they get a concealed carry permit,
that's priceless in this city.