If you’re interested, all the back issues are archived on the union’s website. If you peruse them, you’ll learn that the union really really hates Governor Patrick, almost exclusively as a result of two issues, the Quinn bill and police details. You’ll see a bunch of other odd stuff too (examples: from page C12 of the Nov/Dec 2009 edition: the false claim that “the ACLU has filed a suit to have all military cross-shaped headstones removed”; and from page A3 of the Sept/Oct 2009 edition, the newspaper editor’s opinion that homeless people seeking handouts at intersections “are lazy pigs seeking funds to buy booze, cigarettes and drugs from idiot suburban morons who are stupid enough to give them anything” and are “an army of mendicant sloths”).
Your perusal will also reveal large, full-color advertisements from many of Boston’s biggest businesses. Now, the newspaper does have a disclaimer of sorts on its front page that reads
The advertisers of the Pax Centurion do not necessarily endorse the opinions of the Pax Centurion/Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. The advertisers are in support of the BPPA Scholarship Fund and every patrolmen [sic] who risks his or her life to protect and serve the community.
Well, fair enough. Still, one does wonder whether the advertisers are aware of quite how … unusual … some of the “opinions” expressed in Pax Centurion really are. In the Globe piece, Pax’s editor was quoted as follows:
James Carnell, managing editor of Pax Centurion, said the pieces were contributed by union members, whose politics trend to the right.
“Our members do tend to be on the conservative end, and we allow editorial expression from our members,” he said.
“Trend to the right”? “On the conservative end”? No. Giant headlines questioning whether the Obamas are “really Americans?????” plastered over obviously doctored photographs are not “on the conservative end.” That’s the stuff of the extreme fringe. The birthers. Those guys.
Oh, I also enjoyed the droll Christmas poem printed on page A1 of the Nov/Dec 2009 issue. Here’s how it starts:
Twas the night before Christmas, and throughout Schroeder Plaza
The cops were as angry as Palestinians in Gaza.
Their pay and their benefits were under the knife,
And the media’s attacks made a miserable life.
The Palestinians in Gaza. Really. Look, say what you want about the Governor’s position on details and the Quinn bill, but the situation in Gaza is about a good deal more than controversial job perks. Let’s try to keep some semblance of perspective.
that, despite the new blossoming of down-home ‘patriotic dissent’ a la tea parties, few from that faction are willing to say what’s really got them riled up: our president is African-American. The lengths they go to to try to couch their racism (denying legitimate birth certificate, alleged death squads, etc.) are hilarious for their absurdity. Why won’t they just come clean and start using the N word unabashedly? It’s not like they’re fooling anyone.
Tarted up racism and nothing more, but only a few have the courage to call it for what it is.
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p>BTW, they can’t use the “N” word–it’s sort of passe. The Onion has the lowdown:
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p>Racial Slur Development Not Keeping Pace With Mixed-Race Births, Nation’s Bigots Report:
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p>
The sort of people who propagate these pictures don’t think that any Democrats are real Americans. The fact that Barack Obama is a member of a “visible minority” just adds more fuel to the fire.
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p>I mean, it’s not like Bill Clinton was treated with kid gloves: people were literally arguing that he and Hillary had a man killed (Vince Foster, among others) for personal gain.
… Eliminaationist.
John McCain being born in Panama, or Goldwater being born in the “Arizona Territory” or Lowell Weicker being born in Paris? It’s all hogwash but it’s not limited to any one party.
… as not ‘real’ Americans is eliminationist. While you are correct that it isn’t limited to one party, the disparity is overwhelming. This shouldn’t be too surprising, once you realize that the GOP appeals to authoritarians
It’s the method the detractors choose to use that is of interest here. Has any white president been accused of not being an actual American citizen but rather the citizen of their ancestor’s homeland? No. Clinton may have been accused of murder, but his fundamental citizenship was never in question.
I don’t recall large popular rallies endlessly decrying Clinton’s alleged murder and therefor his right to remain president. But with Obama The Black Man, they just don’t let up.
…back in 1968.
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p>He was born in Mexico of American parents.
with so many real issues going in on politics today that people bother with these crude forgeries. I agree – its just racism. Or more likely people with nothing to add to the dialogue resorting to this sort of garbage.
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p>Then again, why is BMG bothering to dredge this drivel up? Surely there are legitimate issues we should be discussing.
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p>Like the governor’s race.
… seems not to be the m.o. of the most active part of the GOP and the tea party movement. I’d love a real policy debate. Most liberals would. Instead this is the kind of s#!t we get.
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p>The governor’s race is a longstanding topic on this site. Are you so new you haven’t even been reading? Tangentially, the governor is the topic of multiple front-page posts and diaries every single day.
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p>I see you joined this site on Saturday, March 13. You’ve made a grand total of two comments, both of which– the one I’m responding to and this one– appear to castigate people for what they’re talking about. Seems kind of strange to enter a site complaining about the people on it, no?
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p>How about you write a diary when you’re able about the things “we should be discussing.” Perhaps you can drive the conversation then towards something more of your liking. Until then, finger-wagging and scolding isn’t going to endear you to anyone. Maybe you’ve just had a bad day?
expressed by people with authority to kill “drivel”? I think it’s one of the most important issues out there.
and it, at least a little bit, negatively affects all folks who live, work, shop, or otherwise visit Boston.
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p>What to do about it?
Unless people call out such things, why ever rely on substance when just lying works so well?
who are willing to write letters to the editor (of PAX or, ahem, a real newspaper) calling out the newsletter on it’s terrible behavior?
I often wonder whether being a police officer attracts conservatives or whether the experience of being a police officers fosters conservatism.
but I’ve come to the conclusion that law enforcement and military service generally attract more conservative personalities (myself excluded).
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p>In the years I’ve been teaching an elective in Peace Studies, I inevitably get kids who didn’t choose the course but were forced to take it due to scheduling difficulties. During the semester, I have kids take several political, social, and personality inventories to help them get a handle on where they fit on a variety of spectrums. The kids who tend to skew conservative are often kids planning on military careers or law enforcement. Every semester I have at least 1 or 2 that break that way.
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p>When you think about Haidt’s Five Foundations graphing, Jung’s Typology, and Political Compass’s quadrant plotting, I can generally guess which kids are interested in those careers by how they place on those inventories. Anecdotal but interesting.
… respect and depend on authority more than the average person tend to wind up conservative.
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p>I really recommend the read, and its free. 🙂
Could it be that the more professional a police force, the less likely experience will foster conservatism?
* I believe (?) Mr. Lynne has observed that this is because it’s anger that motivates sticking stuff to bumpers.
Only non-Americans like Teddy Roosevelt, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and that nobody Thomas Jefferson don’t know how to do the pledge?
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p>(PS: Ever talk to a foreigner about the Pledge of Allegiance? They typically regard it as baffling and/or creepy.)
Over the past 200 years, how many people became American citizens? How does that compare to citizens of other countries?
As we all know, people from other countries aren’t capable of reasoning properly, so their opinions should always be disregarded.
I like their opinions on universal healthcare and beer- at least the Canadians and the Europeans.
I’ve come to kind of hate the pledge of allegiance. It conjures up images of submission, intolerance, blind obedience, complacency, and even idolatry. But then again, I like the National Anthem- maybe it’s the melody?
Anyway, I certainly don’t presume to speak for Obama- he probably likes the pledge just fine.
A great and beautiful poem, set to a drinking song. What could be BETTER really??? 😀
But what a limp drinking song. Can you imagine hoisting a tankard to “Anacreon in Heaven”?
The changing of the words so we can now drink to America!
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p>With the watered down and tasteless swill we produce! 😉
For a drinking song, a melody that is beyond the ability of most carousers has a certain painful gamin poignancy.
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p>For the national ditty, the song that we all sing together at the start of baseball games and Town Meeting, more tuneful would be better.
…all the way through unless I start on just the right note. My range is too narrow.
on a daily basis. Even the language around the pledge activity is enough to give one pause:
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p>
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p>Ja wohl. While there are civil liberterian issues that arise around pledges, most schools take a more tolerant and respectful approach to the pledge activity. We have a fair amount of kids who remain silent each day and some who don’t even stand.
We only did the Pledge in homeroom… which we only had once a week. It was a thankful departure after having to say the Pledge just about every day for the first 14 years of my life. I guess that’s in violation of that law… but certainly no one ever complained.
The Pledge should be given according to current state law.
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p>No student should EVER be be rewarded, punished, or questioned for taking or not taking the Pledge.
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p>I took the Pledge throughout my schooling, viewing it as a matter of routine that was a nice thought but not of primary importance.
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p>If a politician tries to eliminate the Pledge, that politician will lose 25% of their support, due to fake outrage, and would in most cases not get re-elected. Fake outrage can be a VERY good campaign strategy for a challenger.
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p>Handling it this way would comply with the current law and avoid potential lawsuits from students, saving the School Department’s funds for the ACADEMIC PROGRAM, not culture war idiocy for some candidate without real policy positions to offer the voters.
…the Supreme Court requires that your second paragraph be true.
In 1892 the adoption of the Pledge may well have calmed some fears of the great waves of immigration washing upon the shores of America. A reminder that you’re in the melting pot and don’t owe allegiance to the Tsar, Kaiser, King or Emperor anymore. As such, it is archaic but served a purpose. I feel good to hear kids recite it (social continuity?), but wouldn’t mind if they didn’t.
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p>As far as the police go, they’d make a better impression as Americans if they would obey the country’s laws, stop protecting the dirty brother officers through omerta, and show respect for other citizens. Maybe that is more important than a Pledge of Allegiance.
Most that I’ve been social with tend to be Republican. No surprise there. But a few, especially after a couple of beers, when they think they are in “safe” company, say some pretty outrageous things. I’ve witnessed it several times over the years.
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p>Race, gender, GLBT, Clinton, “Hippies”, Obama, “scum” in general, etc… have all been brought up in ways that professional law enforcement officers should really avoid.
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p>Depending on the situation I have sometimes argued, but more often than not, the offending party would just get a few rolled eyes from his friends and be treated like the mouthy closet-racist Uncle at Thanksgiving.
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p>What shocks me about this is that the Union seems to confuse free speech with slander when it comes to their paper. It is truly outrageous and needs to stop.
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p>On a related note, my brother is an airline pilot (retired Navy Capt. who is a loud and proud liberal! very rare.) who is also the legislative rep for his union local. He spends a lot of time out on the web message boards for the union. The absolute right wing insanity that sometimes gets spewed makes places like freerepublic.com seem tame. However, I doubt that junk like that ever makes the Newsletter. Oy.
We would absolutely skull-fuck the police unions. They aren’t our friends; they never have been. Oh, and of course their benefits are substantively ridiculous and bankrupting the government. Axe their perks, end all details tomorrow, put their entitled retirees into Medicare with the rest of us peasants, tax pension amounts over a certain level (perhaps where SS tops out… around 60k), institute a hard 140k cap on public sector income (the same as the Gov).
We all need cops to protect our shit from thieves, catch rapists and murderers, etc. Most of them are good, hard-working people.
of a-holes and authoritarian overlords make it hard to see past those who aren’t good, hardworking individuals. And none of it means Ed Poon isn’t right. We need to get rid of details, at least, and Medicare should be mandatory for all retirees from the public sector, whether you were a cop or a Governor. Quite frankly, I can’t understand what they have to complain about… no public sector employees are treated as well, in salary and benefits, on the aggregate, as cops.
… against those who would fight policy arguments with lies isn’t much of a vice. Against those who would use lies to spread unjustified fear and hate, even less so.
Always an awesome philosophy, leads to great policies. And here I thought you were among those who prizes reason over emotion, Mr. Lynne.
This racist crap ran in a publication put out by the police union – it’s not “just” something forwarded over email by one cop.
At least some officers clearly found the material objectionable. Membership in the union is a requirement of employment, AFAIK, and I doubt more than a handful of officers have anything to do with determining the editorial content of the newsletter, authoring editorials, etc. I could be wrong.
then the union should smack those few down but hard, and publicly, because not to do so is to tacitly support this kind of thing (much like, though on a much smaller scale, the discussion on the other thread re: the Catholic church). It’s a basic principle that if members of an organization, acting in their capacity as members of that organization, do objectionable or illegal things, it’s the organization’s responsibility to deal with them in an appropriate manner, and if it doesn’t, their behavior reflects on the organization as a whole. It’s true for Enron, it’s true for the Catholic church, it’s true for the Army and Abu Ghraib, it’s true for the US Government and Gitmo, it’s true for the Boston police union.
… spite for those aside from those who lie? If they, as an institution, are going to take stands like these, I have no problem criticizing the institution, even spitefully. The correct response for those who are associated with the institution but otherwise ‘innocent’ is shame.
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p>I’m not saying I recommend it in all cases, but offense expressed in spite can be channeled usefully in some cases. I’m not sure whether this would make sense in this case, but I’m certainly open to hearing the extent of dissatisfaction. I would say that Ed’s might sound extreme, but if you take out the call for ‘skull-fucking’, his policy prescriptions aren’t exactly out of bounds, and might be valid methods of ‘push-back’ toward useful ends for the Commonwealth and might still be fair to Police as workers. I acknowledge that there is push-push dynamic in dealing with the union and if the Commonwealth should determine that it’s time to push back, that’s to be expected even if you want to call it ‘spite’.
Just not the idea that it should be done as retaliation for this ad, out of hatred for all cops.
… might just be another word for reciprocity. If you throw the ball, you should expect to have the ball thrown back. If the policy prescriptions are good on their own right, then the motivation of wanting to push back in order to get them done isn’t misplaced. It’d be misplaced if the prescribed push back was something unju stified.
of the rank-and-file cop. Clearly, the wrong people are becoming cops far too often.
Politics, business, bureaucracies, the priesthood. C’est la vie. There’s a police exam coming up soon- any interest in being a crimefighter?
but the wrong person in business can’t arrest someone, or use a taser on them for no legitimate reason.
Just f-in scary.
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/
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p>Is BPD infected?
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p>From the “Pax Centurion” Newsletter:
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p>Maybe it has always been this way. Sad & Scary.
cops can be jerks. When jerks reach a critical mass, you get a culture of jerkdom. I don’t have any dope on the BPD, but the Springfield Police Department has had its share of winners.
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p>The Springfield Police Department has some good cops, but racism is a continuing problem. In the 90s, one Springfield cop was fired for leaving messages on the answering machine of a black minister. I think he was the same guy who sent a ham to a cop who happened to shoot a black man. More recently, a black man, apparently a drug dealer was beaten and called the “n-word. The cop in question has a checkered past. If the evidence bears the charges out, he could face hate crime charges.
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p>In 1991, Andy Card helped connect a Republican dirty trickster with the Springfield police union to picket the Democratic State Convention in Springfield. The cops, who said they wanted to draw attention to their stalled contract negotiations, had no beef with Massachusetts Democrats; they were really acting as Republican operatives intent on disturbing the convention.
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p>My father was a delegate that year and witnessed the thuggery first hand. The State Democratic Party eventually
sued the Republican operative with Card connections and the Springfield police union… in Hampden County Superior Court alleging that he and Republican activist Stephen DeAngelis conspired with the head of the police union to have police picket outside the site of the Democrats’ nominating convention.
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p>These examples are no excuse for trashing every police department and its union in the state. I know a lot of folks around here think unions kidnap babies and use them in satanic rituals, but forchrissakes, get a grip.
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p>And go after the BPD union!
American Citizenship is Political-Geographic. It is based on either being naturalized or being born on certain parcels of land (geographic) that the United States Constitution rules over (political). It has nothing to do with race, nationality, or religion in any way.
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p>Hawaii, where Obama was born, became a state in 1959. He was born in 1961 in the State of Hawaii to Ann Dunham, an American Citizen. He has citizenship based on both descent from his US citizen mother and being born in the State of Hawaii.
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p>Trying to create fake outrage about mom and apple pie (non)-issues such as The Pledge of Allegience done incorrectly (in doctored pictures) is idiotic, moronic, and beneath contempt.
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p>It also shows that if there is a “flag-desecration” Constitutional Amendment, it will be abused by prosecutors to punish people who disagree with them about politics.
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p>This does not mean that I support Obama politically at this time. I am basically part of the left opposition to him at this point. But my disagreements are about things that really matter, such as economic and foreign policy. I have no time for adult versions of kindergarten “IWWW-POOO-PEEEES”, which is what this type of thing is.
Regarding this comment by David,
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p>
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p>if you own a business, large or small, you have probably received telephone calls from numerous organizations claiming to represent some police-related interest, asking for a “donation” by means of placing an ad in a newspaper or event program. There’s the Fraternal Order of Police, the Massachusetts Police Association, the Mass. Coalition of Police, the Police Benevolent Association, etc. etc. I’ve never really understood how that fund-raising adds to public safety, or how it really goes to charity.
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p>According to a group that tracks the efficiency of charitable organizations,
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p>But the sad truth is that no business wants to say no to the police when they call looking for their protection money, I mean, their contributions, which is why those ads are known in the ad business as “stick up” ads.
Just curious, which organization spends 90% on fundraising?
CharityNavigaor.com
CharityNavigator.com
…if the Obama’s DID use their left hands is it really worth getting upset about? I mean, I probably cringe more than the most when the flag is not treated or respected properly (HUGE pet peeve of mine), but I don’t go calling people evil or unpatriotic over it.
is that an elite has taken over the country, surreptitiously, cleverly, and shrewdly. They expect the evidence to be convincing but obscure.
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p>So yes, to some Americans this would be telling evidence that the Obamas never attended American schools.
…the “non-elites” who wrote our Declaration and Constitution to begin with, right.
You know that irony had not occurred to me, but it is significant.
Odd that no one affiliated with this “ad” would use Google to verify the photo.
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p>Or is it……?
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p>The background has also been moved to eliminate the Marine saluting behind her elbow: a left handed salute would have been a dead giveaway. It’s also cropped closely to avoid picturing the Marine at his elbow.
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p>I find it fascinating, not to mention pathetic, how much effort went into what is, essentially, very little payoff… It’s like a miniature Starr report… Do the college Republicans really have that much time on their hands… ?
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p>The dead giveaway is the digital photo of the President of the United States of America using his left hand, found on the Internet. To anybody with a shred of sanity or intelligence, that’s the giveaway.
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p>Really — the cop who put this in the paper should lose his job. Not because of the political “speech”, but because as GregR points out, these are the professionals who are in charge of gathering evidence and investigating. Not being able to determine that this is a fake indicates that the person who put it in is a lousy cop, plain and simple. A clear lack of judgment and the inability to even do a cursory investigation before introducing so-called-evidence which, if false or doctored could still be terribly damaging to an innocent citizen (in this case the POTUS and FL).
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p>
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p>P.S. The image below is not proof that Dick Cheney is a Nazi. If a police office thought it was, he too should be fired.
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p>
The criminal justice system would be pretty scary indeed if cops served as investigators, juries, and executioners. The POTUS is not really your average innocent citizen, either. Wasn’t it John Adams who initiated the Alien and Sedition Acts because people were writing critical, and perhaps slanderous and untrue, things about him? Not his finest moment, to be sure. Certainly nobody should be subjected to false accusations, but I think the President needs to have pretty thick skin in order to stay sane as the leader of 300 million diverse citizens, and pretty much the most powerful person in the world. I don’t see the cop getting fired for this extracurricular activity, and I don’t think I agree that he should be. His “journalism” has been discredited, to be sure, and he shouldn’t be working on the newsletter- but he’s not a trained journalist. What about an anonymous blogger (perhaps who works during the day as a scientific researcher) who makes a false political accusation based on unreliable evidence discovered on the Internet? Fired from the day job for poorly researched political speech? I didn’t even agree with what happened to Dan Rather, and he was a professional journalist. So I think firing the cop would be too extreme- fire them for planting evidence, lying on the stand, or beating suspects to death, by all means- but not for bad journalism.
Honestly, I don’t think anyone here cares whether President Obama’s feelings are hurt.
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p>How about s/he should be fired for publishing lies about people in general and the president in particular? How about we don’t “frame” people by altering the truth to suit one’s own purposes? How about we don’t smear other people’s reputations with what you euphemistically call “bad journalism,” but which in truth is actually bald-faced lies to suit our own purposes?
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p>Part of the responsibility of being a public servant, especially one that is charged with enforcing standards of behavior, is to uphold a certain ethical and moral standard. This individual has failed in that respect miserably and should be fired immediately.
The cop shouldn’t be fired, period.
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p>This speech is stupid, inaccurate and offensive. It saddens me that the cops who are running the union paper are either this stupid or this mean-spirited, but they have the right to say these stupid things and no one should be fired for exercising their first amendment rights. This is a union publication, if they’re not disparaging the product, then the boss shouldn’t have anything to say about it, to suggest that they should (recognizing that the original comment wasn’t doing this) sets a very dangerous precedent.
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p>That being said, we should criticize this speech, call it out for the hate speech that it is and let the cop union know that to endorse this kind of speech makes them the enemy of virtue.
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p>Really? They’re public employees who require public trust. This isn’t about free speech at all — this is about displaying poor judgment about the collection and display of evidence, both skills directly related to their employment. It’s not much different than a cop “winning” the worst shooter in the world competition.
… A political opinion about patriotism? Its political propaganda. Even if he knows it or doesn’t, I don’t see being a propagandist as being a firing offense. OTH I do see it as legitimate for coloring anyone’s opinion of him, including his superiors.
shows a rather cavalier disregard for the truth and is willing to lie about a citizen publicly and in print.
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p>Not all propaganda is lies, and some propaganda can be helpful, given that propaganda is a value neutral term. What this officer did, however, is not value neutral; s/he has lied, in public, about another citizen for political gain.
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p>I do expect a higher standard from law enforcement who are responsible for the ethical gathering and treatment of facts. Clearly this individual is not up to the task.
“shows a rather cavalier disregard for the truth and is willing to lie about a citizen publicly and in print. “
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p>Just like I said – he’s a propagandist. I expect him to be professional with the facts when he’s on the job. I think he’s allowed to be a loon or a propagandist on his own time. I don’t think its good, but I don’t think that it, in and of itself, is a firing offense. It is, however, probably a warning sign to be on the lookout for other behavior that may well might be actionable. It shows poor judgment and ethics on his own time.
If he were to put that picture somewhere like a political blog or a non-police venue, that would be one thing. But he didn’t. He put that thing out there in a professional publication that has the imprimatur of the police union on it. He did it, essentially, then, as a police officer, not as a private citizen.
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p>So I don’t see this as the speech of a private citizen. He spoke in his capacity as a police officer in a law enforcement publication.
The officer inspected the image, and “would not doubt it being authentic,” further declaring that “it is not a mirror image.”
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p>It’s different from the picture of Cheney above precisely because it isn’t represented as parody or speech, it’s represented as evidence that the Obamas aren’t Americans. It proports to be an actual unaltered photo of the Obamas.
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p>If a cop can be hoodwinked by evidence which is so clearly altered, that cop has terrible skills as an investigator. If a cop then takes such an obvious forgery and uses it to instigate negative behavior toward someone who is (obviously!) innocent of what the so-called-evidence proclaims, that also demonstrates that the cop has bad judgment.
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p>The cop could demonstrate exactly the same poor judgment if the photo was of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. If it was clear that it wasn’t intended to be a parody but rather to be convincing, it would show the exact same poor skills in investigating and decision making, and would present exactly the same reasons for termination.
Each person in the chain of criminal justice must perform admirably. Any person in that chain who demonstrates significant lack of judgment and professionalism in an area closely related to their responsibilities as a professional ought to have his or her credentials questioned, because the chain of criminal justice relies on every single link performing well.
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p>The issue isn’t that the POTUS isn’t an average innocent citizen. The issue is that the POTUS is a human being in America, and therefore deserves to be treated professionally by the police, just like every other human being in America.
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p>
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p>To answer your question about the scientific researcher, the answer is that it depends entirely on the degree of the error. This error is akin to that researcher submitting an article to a journal showing that the Theory of Gravity is incorrect, proving it by dropping a book and a feather from the same height. That guy: fired.
The other issue is that eliminationist rhetoric like this – that the Obama presidency is illegitimate because he’s “not really an American” – is really dangerous. It feeds a paranoid narrative of a “takeover” by Others (much like Lou Dobbs’s extraordinarily irresponsible rhetoric about immigrants) and the more that narrative is reinforced, the more unbalanced or weak-willed or desperate people are going to decide they’re justified in “resisting” that imagined “takeover” with violent action.
Sadly, he is the very person we have hired to protect us
the cops who put the photo in the paper think the exact same thing.