PHOTO: Sal Reyes, brother of Lakewood Police Officer Nate Reyes, was among over 100 police officers laid off in Trenton yesterday. The 105 officers handed in their guns and badges and left their signed boots in front of the department as a symbol of leaving their jobs. The officers then gave a salute for the last time.
“It’s hard for me, because I loved the job”, Sal Reyes – the husband, and father of four- tells TLS. Sal Reyes has been on the force for about 3 1/2 years.
In addition to the layoffs of nearly a third of the force, dozens of officers 
were demoted. Captains became Lieutenants, Lieutenants became Sergeants and Sergeants became Patrolman once again.
The Administration says they’ve exhausted all possible venues to try and save the Union jobs, but to no avail.
Typically, many officers will put their names on the RICE list to try and get rehired by another department, but with the economy the way it is, positions are not easy to come across.
LPD Officer Creg Fink, one of Lakewood’s newest officers, was hired from the RICE list. TLS.
Why should a dedicated officer be out of a job? Let’s bring him to Lakewood.
Very sad. I wish you luck Sal. If the unions would allow for lower wages and benefits, more jobs could be saved. But alas, that came too late for Sal.
I hope you get a job in Lakewood.
it is no the unions
Work for the government & you get “booted” out. a Shame
Unions destroyed every industry in this country. They talk about protecting the workers from cruel bosses and a bunch of other lies. They rob peoples money by promising all kinds of thing they cant and dont deliver. VERY SAD that its destroying a city and a families livelihood.
It’s so sad how the republican party have manipulated people such as PROUD USA to put the blame of all or our woes on unions. The real problem is not a spending problem, but a revenue problem. Start now American and asked those who are better off to contribute to their country more.
ms cane you have a point. please call so can give you all my savings. i have 44000 dallors in savings and addititional 20 ellswhere. you are so right. call me so ill give you all i have. (sorry it took this long)
Huh?
Ms Candy kane:
If you want socialisem move to
France ,
Why take away hard earned money from americans ?!
And yes its the Uniones at fault ! The union bosses pocketing all the memeber dues…..
Dont take this as being anti police i am totally pro police and the rule of law, but i think in the last 10 years we’ve become to “pro police” we looked at every problem as something the police have to fix negating all personal responsibility. What happened is with everything becoming the polices’s problem they had to hire more and more, now that the economy went south the “extra” cops will have to go and police will once again be forced to focus on real police work. so the next time your neighbors dog is barking to loud or there’s an abandoned shop rite bag with a head of lettuce inside the police will tell you ever so politely we dont have the man power handle it yourself. Thats the way it should be and thats how it always was
only in lakewood are we still paying six figure salaries including benefits to our officers. Let us pay them a fair normal wage and ease the burden on our taxpayers!
Now Lakewood aint so bad, huh?
Trenton is going bankrupt. If not for state money they would be taken over by the state. They are heading there.
The new mayor Tony Mack took over after many years of the prior mayor giving away the house to everybody he knew and now Mayor Mack is left with many unpleasant choices.
I recentyl heard a speech from Ronald Reagan he asked “what happened to all the places where social services moved in to eradicate ‘poverty’? all it has done has increased poverty.” Trenton was once a thriving city with an economy – what is left is bodeagas on corners, laundromats and bailed bonds service center – a pathetic place. You can say the same for many other cities like Camden, Detroit, Patterson. Where government gets involved and creates more and more dependency the results are less and less of a real economy and more and more ‘poverty’. The governemt needs to revamp the entire social service ‘entitlement’ system as it is broke and not doing what it was ‘promised’ to do.
Take away pensions, and they’ll be able to hire & keep more cops, in every town in this country!
A cop works 22 years and he retires with 80% of his paycheck for the rest of his life?? Who ever heard of such stupidity?
I won’t get a pension from my two jobs.
And everyone’s wondering why the post office is closing down? They’re still paying ex-workers from 20 years ago!!
Think about others who are forclosing on their homes?
Think about others who can’t afford the sky hight taxes to hire extra govt workers.
Think about those who work past 65 with no pension at all
Think about the home owners struGling to put bread on the table
Do you get the point We can’t afford to sacrifice all for a few Cops who will retire at the age of 45!!!!! and live off a fat pension that those struggling tax payers have to pay for. Its time for Equality. shame on the unions for taking advantage and robbing us all these years.Having extra cops is a luxury we can not afford!!
That’s the fact.
to PROUD USA
It’s people like you that are destroying this country, not the unions. Unions are what made this country the envy of the world for our high standard of living, with everything from safety standards to reasonable wages that you can support a family on. It’s people with your mentality and greedy CEO’s that destroyed this country and have made us a joke, a target and broke. One hundred years ago 146 women and men died (many of them Jewish) because of greed when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan caught fire and the employees were trapped inside because the owners locked them in to keep them from taking a break. It was from this that the unions stepped in to fight for safer working conditions and in later year reasonable wages and hours. Open a history book sometime and maybe you will see that your anti-union comments are ignorant at the least. It was corporate backed republican policy’s that have led to CEO’s going from making 20 times the average employee to 400 times the average employee but somehow you think union workers are greedy. It was greedy CEO’s that shipped jobs overseas to fatten their bank accounts not union workers. It was greedy CEO’s that brought cheap foreign labor into this country along with the problems that come with them, not union workers. And its greedy politicians blaming unions while they get exorbitant salaries, benefits and kickbacks worth far more then the cop who protects you and your family, not union workers.
Your sick thinking will lead to the destruction of this country, we will all be just as poor as the third world if we don’t stick together. Greedy human beings will always exploit others for there own profit and the expense of everyone else if not kept in check. Unions keep the balance that gave the United States the highest standard of living, not the CEO’s and not the politicians. Capitalism is a great system when it is kept in check and the reason we are in this economic crisis is capitalism was allowed to run amok, unregulated and not carefully watched. For years this country regulated the economy and we were prosperous, it was only after we started to deregulate that the economy dropped until we are where we are now.
The union didn’t cost these 105 officers their jobs and to suggest otherwise is ignorant.
VERY SAD that your ignorance is destroying a city and a families livelihood.
to # 16 you couldn’t have said it better. Shalom to you. Finally someone with real knowledge and truth about what is really going on in this town and country. We all know the saying or teaching that “The Truth Shall Set You Free.” Actually in this case the truth shall set this country free from the greedy CEO and Republican lies, lies,. Bush made this mess and expect the president to fix things asap. Doesn’t work that way.
TO ,To proud usa ,
Why all the anger ? Its my hard earned money (taxes) being redistributed by you and your democrats that is destroying America !!!!
I’ll explain it in simple terms. If your Husband makes $50,000 a year and you like to spend $70,000 a year, you have a spending problem not a revenue problem regardless of how rich you’re husband’s boss is.
Now as far as the historical worth of unions, that’s a differant conversation. The general belief now is that the unions cause more damage than good for the workers they claim to protect. There’s a reason why union membership in private industry has plummeted in the last 50 years.
Why didn’t you just say it a “Revenue problem”!
i will work an additional 5 hours a week, who is with me?
can you do just one thing for me, please call my boss to approve the overtime.
Sincerely,
Mr. Revenue
You make me angry. Who is greedy here? You want MY taxes – money that would put food on my table and clothing on my children – to pay for the pensions of all these workers. I need to work a third job for the rest of my life so that they can retire in comfort. I’m just trying to pay my bills and you want me to foot e/o else’s also! If you weren’t relying on my money to pay for your whatever, u wouldn’t be so mad. Those “greedy CEO”s brought businesses and a healthy economy to our capitalist country. Everyone living off a couple of millionaires will cause the rich people pack their bags adn go somewhere pleasant. And then what are you left with? An economy that has no way to pay the bills! Surprise! It’s scary how ignorant people can be.
its unbelievable that trenton that has the worst crime rate in the state is cutting the police force this is a win for crime! now there will be even more crime and law abiding, tax paying ppl are gona move outa nd then they will have less revenue and need even more cops its a viscious cycle!
To the residents of Lakewood…..if you think you will get the “treatment” or “favoritism” that I’ve personally seen LAkewood officers give to people by lowering their salaries, you are wrong. You get what you pay for, and I for one think that Lakewood has some of the most professional and courteous officers around. They also go to great lengths to be more sensitive to the needs of the Jewish community. Did you not forget that we had one officer murdered, 4 officers shot in a drug raid, and one officer die in a car crash. Not to mention the many officers who have been hurt in the line of duty. Our officers are not millionaires by any means, but they should be compensated for the job they do by the salaries that are paid. If you think you will get the same caliber of officer by lowering their salaries, we as a town are in for a rude awakening
and P.S., don’t complain that these officers get paid what they do or receive the pension and benefits. The position is open to ALL New Jersey residents. Anyone complaining either is too chicken to take the job or must have a criminal record and therefore could not get hired as a police officer. Take the test, pass and you too can have somewhat of a stable job. Why should they be penalized because they chose to work in the public sector. The private sector didn’t give 2 hoots about what the public sector was making when they were rolling in the big bucks, now they want everyone else to suffer because they are.