While retired politicians and all other retired Baltimore City employees receive steady and constant cost of living raises, firefighters and police officers injured in the line of duty have had their pensions frozen for any type of cost-of-living wage increase for over eight years now — unless they reach the age of 55, at which point they get a 1 percent raise ("Pension fund for Baltimore workers struggles as fund for elected officials improves," Jan. 20).
Firefighters or police officers injured in the line of duty in 2008 and only 45 years old have not received a single cost-of-living increase to date. While health care costs skyrocket along with inflation, these people have been all but forgotten. Retired firefighters and police injured in the line of duty were lumped into Baltimore's pension litigation just like everyone else with no consideration given to them. Many are dying and struggling to make ends meet while this plays out in the court system.
It seems what they have already endured was not enough, and they have been sacrificed for the greater good of Baltimore's finances. The very same brave people who have put their lives on the line each and every day for the citizens of Baltimore are asked to sacrifice more. It is shameless that politicians chose to include them in this ongoing debacle.
The city's elected leaders have turned their backs on all of those who already have give so much to Baltimore and the citizens they served.
Michael Ceriale, Oviedo, Fla.
The writer is a former captain with the Baltimore City Fire Department