# BPPA ARTICLE



## j809 (Jul 5, 2002)

Media Declares Open Season on Police Pay, Benefits 


by Jim Carnell, Pax Editor 
A blistering attack orchestrated and coordinated by the major media has commenced over the last several months targeting the pay and benefits of Massachusetts' police officers. The Quinn bill and police details have become headline-leading canon-fodder for local media personalities bored with picking through the remains of the "Crisis in the Church" and the war with Iraq. 

The state's fiscal crisis has opened the doors of opportunity for those who hate the police and despise all perceived authority. Already-negotiated contractual benefits, (once believed to be secure under the auspices of MGL 150E , the Mass. Public employee-collective bargaining law) are being cast in the light of "taxpayer waste"-attack articles by journalists with an agenda. This blistering attack has included the use of a sundry collection of political toadies to mouth the proper words for the assembled cameras or provide pithy quotes for the next day's scathing attack-piece.

Whether from Margery Egan on the left or Howie Carr on the right, the Globe or the Herald, the media’s vultures have now turned their vitriol towards police officers. Egan, the Herald’s aging Brookline-yuppie scribe, enjoys casting police officers as jack-booted, Nazi-thugs. When confronted with a professional, peaceful demonstration of off-duty police officers dressed in plain clothes and their families, Egan composed a smarmy, demeaning article lamenting the fact that she was unable to report the presence of intimidating brutes with flashing badges and 44.cal. magnums threatening cowering politicians. Like many other phonies, Egan often includes in her articles the line “I love the police BUT….before she launches into her decidedly anti-police tirades. (Editor’s note to police officers: whenever you see this line included in an article- watch out- you know what’s coming next…).

One would have to be a truly gullible fool to believe that this attack on police officers was anything other than a coordinated event planned for quite some time by our most vicious detractors. The Quinn bill, for example, is over 30 years old and has long been an integral part of most of Massachusetts’ police officer’s collective bargaining agreements. The total cost of the Quinn to the state is less than two-thousandths of the total state budget (.00184%, to be exact), but it has been editorialized against repeatedly by almost all of the major local newspapers. One is led to believe that the State’s dire fiscal condition is at least partially due to the BPPA’s inclusion in the Quinn bill program a mere 5 years ago. Nothing of course could be further from the truth. But police officers are always a convenient and easy target for the public’s wrath, especially so in bad economic times. The fact that virtually no attention has been paid to teacher or firefighter pay and benefits, relative to the scrutiny afforded to police, is proof-positive that this attack is focused and directed solely at our profession.

Not to be outdone by the print media, Channel Seven’s Dan Hausle also needed an issue, and so decided to focus his sights on police details. Hausle, of course, would never focus the camera’s attention on the traffic officer sweating in 90-degree heat or freezing outside in a snowstorm. Determined to present a particular image, Channel 7 waited for the opportune moment in time to capture an officer taking his coffee break or talking with another officer and then presented that false image as an accurate reflection of the officer’s day. Perception is the beholder’s reality, and unfortunately, much of the general public does not think critically enough to understand that the media has a political agenda. That agenda is furthered by not only what the media chooses to present to the public but also by what they choose not to present.

The current attack is expected to continue throughout the summer even as the BPD faces critical shortages in staffing and manpower. There are absolutely no expectations that BPD upper-level management will publicly express any support of the troops, as the most common position for them is to adopt the policy of kowtowing, groveling and fawning before their handlers in the media. No detectable levels of testosterone have been found during recent trips by the BPPA leadership to One Shroeder Plaza.


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## LeadDog17 (May 3, 2002)

Forward this to EVERYONE you know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post in the library, Post Office, Community bulletin Boards!!!!!!!
Take some pictures of friends doing some of the more difficult aspects of the job and submit them to local papers!!!!!!!


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