Disability Pension Equals Gold in the Pocket

There's a new Gold Rush in New Jersey, where hundreds of prospecters don't even have to exert themselves panning and digging, they just come up with a "disability" and the gold leaps up out of the ground and into their pockets.

This year the State will grant the most disability pensions in history, having approved 537 just up to August. God alone knows how much more largess the treasury will pass out by year's end. Of course, it's taxpayer money. Naturally, there are some who deserve it. But among those lined up at the trough is a Transit Police Officer who negligently shot himself in the finger with a stapler. An assemblyman who runs 5K races, yet is too disabled to be a cop, and we get to pay him to not be one. My favorite is a full disability pension granted to an Edison police officer who was to be disciplined for an assault on an elderly lady, while on duty. He quickly applied for Disability retirement on grounds that he suffered from a Handicap. The handicap was that he couldn't resist beating up elderly ladies. He won the case. Pay and benefits for lilfe. And he was in his 30's at the time of retirement. Under the rules passed down by our State Supreme Court, the only requirement for the disability bounty is to want it.