Smaller NYPD class raises fears, AM New York (emphasis mine below)

Researchers and city officials Wednesday wondered if an increasingly stretched police force can continue to keep crime rates down on the same day that the NYPD fell far short in its goal of 2,800 recruits at cadet graduation.

...

While 1,097 cadets graduated Wednesday, the department is 1,828 short of the number of officers it is allowed to hire this year, an NYPD spokesman said. The force has steadily declined as veteran officers retire or leave the city to work in higher-paying areas.

Critics have charged that the city is unable to attract enough recruits because NYPD salary levels are not competitive with those in the suburbs and New Jersey. Police academy recruits start at $25,100, a rate that's lower than newly hired sanitation workers, Central Park gardeners and plumbing inspectors. Top pay maxes out at $59,588.

Via Caryn Coleman I learned of this benefit. There is an exhibition tomorrow at the Bubble Lounge, and an online auction which has already started and ends July 1 at 11:59pm.

--

Photojournalists from prestigious organizations such as National Geographic, the photo agency VII, TIME, Newsweek and The New York Times donate iconic works in an Exhibition and Online Print Auction to benefit victims of acid burning in Pakistan.

Live event to support the auction June 26th at 7 pm

Featuring prints by James Nachtwey , John Stanmeyer and Jan Grarup, only available for bidding during a silent auction at:

The Bubble Lounge
228 W Broadway
New York City
212.431.3433

With live performance by Sparlha Swa, projections by SeenUnseen, and of course champagne and lots of cool people!

World-renowned photojournalists are donating their favorite images, signed and printed, to raise money for female victims of acid burning and to raise awareness about a fate inflicted on many women in Pakistan. Marked with dishonor, their harsh disfigurement often forces them to live in the shadows of every-day life--excluded by family and society.

Here is your chance to literally change a woman's life while also owning some of the most compelling photojournalism of the modern era.

Online Auction items include never before available work by such photographers as The New York Times' Todd Heisler, whose emotional Pulitzer Prize-winning work on the return of deceased soldiers from Iraq will be available for purchase for the first time.

Participating photographers include:

• Lynsey Addario
• Samantha Appleton
• Andrea Bruce
• Marcus Bleasdale
• Tamas Dezso
• Jessica Dimmock
• Balazs Gardi
• David Gillanders
• David Guttenfelder
• Todd Heisler
• Lynn Johnson
• Ed Kashi
• Gary Knight
• Antonin Kratochvil
• Yuri Kozyrev
• Teru Kuwayama
• Shaul Schwartz
• Stephanie Sinclair
• Kadir Van Lohuizen
• Ami Vitale

Initially, the proceeds will help Azra Latif, a Pakistani woman who suffered third-degree acid burns on her face and torso and faces a lifetime of agony as her injuries continue to scar and worsen the longer they remain untreated.

Background

Azra, 33, was severely burned two years ago when her brother-in-law threw acid on her face during an argument.

When Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair first met her in 2005, at a shelter in Lahore, Pakistan, Azra said to her, "Everyone photographs me but no one helps."

So Sinclair contacted Marie Jose Brunel, a nurse with the French NGO HumaniTerra, who convinced the organization to provide Azra reconstructive surgery for free starting July 2. She will spend three-months in the hospital receiving multiple skin grafts. The money raised will help provide transportation, housing and other living expenses for Azra, and her husband, Abdul Latif. Any extra money will go towards helping future victims through the same life-saving process.

Special thanks to Chris Pacetti, Natasha Chandani, and Jon Resh, who helped with the graphic design on this project.

For those of you following along, I'm wondering if the powers that be are realizing that appearing to be hostile to parades, especially queer ones at this time of year, is a bad thing. According to onNYTurf, The Audre Lorde Project is getting their permit to parade in the streets on Friday after having been denied several times. They received their permit as they were about to take the NYPD to court.

It will be interesting to see how "un-permitted" and historic protest marches such as the Dyke March and the Drag March are treated.

Am I the only one who finds it odd that the New York Police Department is in charge of deciding who is allowed to have a permit for political demonstrations and decides who gets a press pass for city press conferences?

Via Digby.

Abstinence-only sex education is basically another way to send tax dollars to right-wing fundamentalist organizations. Remind me again why I should be expected to donate time or money to the Democratic Party if this is what having a Democratic congressional majority brings us?