The Scales of Justice: Cop’s Fat Payout Dreams
Does ex-NYPD Officer Jose Vega have no shame (“Fat Blue Line,” Feb. 14)?
Already collecting a hefty disability pension, he now has the nerve to sue the Police Department over his weight ballooning to 360 pounds.
How convenient to use obesity to make some extra cash. I’m sure the department was responsible for Vega eating like there’s no tomorrow.
Not only should the NYPD not give him another dime, it should countersue for filing a false claim. Vega’s a disgrace to the badge he once wore. James Mucci Manhattan Another New Yorker who doesn’t want to take responsibility for himself and his overactive fork. Most jobs are stressful, mine included.
Maybe less McDonald’s visits and a bit more walking and exercise would’ve kept the pounds off. Now Vega wants a larger pension for his gluttonous eating and wants the NYPD to pay for it? I don’t think so
He can diet, exercise, lose weight and be in shape for another career and enjoy his current pension.
The NYPD is not the lottery. Susan Zises Green Manhattan
As director of The New York Center for Eating Disorders, I can refute the trumped-up notion of ex-cop Jose Vega who thinks he deserves disability pay because the stress of being an NYPD cop made him obese.
Not every cop becomes obese due to job stress, so the responsibility was on Vega to have sought counseling to cope with the demands of the job and to help him learn to sepa- rate his stress from his eating.
It’s not up to the city of New York to compensate him for not working on his own personal problems.
Obesity is caused by many factors, such as heredity, an eating disorder and lack of exercise, and not only because of the anxieties in our lives. Mary Anne Cohen Brooklyn The Post’s story about retired cop Vega asking for more compensation than the $4,000 he gets each month on “disability” points to the selfishness and greed of just one disability retiree. But there are thousands of often very able people squeezing blood from the benefits stone.
Perhaps Vega should get compensated for the job having also made him stupid and deceitful. Rich Klitzberg Boca Raton, Fla.
Why isn’t every other cop 360 pounds if it really is “job-related”?
Good luck to the truly disabled people waiting for disability. Pat Carey Largo, Fla. I’m as supportive of policemen as anyone I know, but in Vega’s case, we have another victim.
He drinks green tea, eats fruit and has two meals of about four ounces of lean protein with vegetables, but stress made him gain over 100 pounds, created a heart condition and ventricular hypertrophy?
There are many police officers who don’t weigh 360 pounds and many jobs that are not conducive to healthy eating.
The easiest thing in this world is not taking responsibility for oneself.
Once you see yourself as a victim, you will never get better, because your problems are never your own fault. Jay Pelc Brooklyn
Vega ate himself to a fat disability retirement and now has the gall to blame the NYPD.
Maybe it was all the Big Macs and doughnuts he ate. Vega joined the department at 180 pounds — at his highest weight, he ballooned up to 395. Vega says being a cop made him eat and eat. But his gluttonous appetite made him obese and incapable of doing his job. No excuses. Manny Martin Manhattan