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Cops On The March

By David Packman

Looks like the Seattle Police Officer's Guild is organizing an "informational picket line" at city hall. The date of the police protest march has not yet been made public.

Citizens fed up with abusive officers and all the money they cost the city's tax payers should organize an informational picket of their own to tell city hall and SPOG members that we don't want to reward officers with pay raises for their bad behavior and their consistent refusal to accept accountability reforms.

Seriously though... I support anyone's right to free speech (on their own time, not the taxpayer's) and I definitely support labor unions and their right to picket (legally)... I also support paying police officers a wage that makes them feel vested in the safety of the communities they serve (as long as they earn it).

But, what the guild is doing is morally reprehensible, in the words of the guild's president, "I?ve told everyone involved that everything is negotiable; it is just a matter of how badly you want it." This proves the guild is holding accountability reforms ransom in exchange for money... it is doing nothing less than blackmail, holding the rights of the citizenry hostage for a payout.

But the SPOG's antagonistic attitude towards the community's calls for accountability and against the city itself is just counterproductive and it's a shame that they feel that they can bully their way into getting pay raises instead of accepting accountability reforms and making ammends with the city to earn a pay raise honestly and with the public's blessing... instead they think if they abuse more citizens they can get a big raise as good old-fashioned "protection money".

I support unionization, my dad was a steelworker and union man... but what the police in Seattle have doesn't act like a union, it acts like an organized crime syndicate.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on February 08, 2008 (boomark / email).