Brother takes public whack at cop-sister

Something tells me there’s going to be some awkward silence around this family’s Easter dinner table. From the letters to the editor in the Salem Evening News, here in Salem, Mass.:

When a co-worker showed me the edition of The Salem News with the high-paying cops salaries in Salem, I bet him anything my sister, Sgt. Kathleen Makros, was in the top five. When he looked, he said I was right.

I just shook my head. If I was a taxpayer in Salem or the mayor, I would be outraged! People are suffering with bills and cops making salaries like that? Thank God I live in a town where the people were brave enough to stand up to the police and the town administrators and say no to more cops and overtime!

Ouch! For those outside of Massachusetts, state law requires private companies to hire off-duty cops at overtime rates to be present at job sites in public areas, unlike most states that only require a flagman or other regular company employee to direct traffic. That little law tends to inflate payrolls, and even if they don’t come out of taxes, they do come from companies who pass on the costs to consumers anyway.