San Jose police go looking for love...again

The Mystery Consultant
With municipal budgets being slashed everywhere, why did the San Jose Police Officers' Association (SJPOA) excitedly announce to the world that it had money to piss away to a consultant, for a video so juvenile that it would rate two thumbs down from YouTube's Mr. Pregnant [1]? No one blinked when SJPOA blew $25,000 on a poll [2] - but that was in the economy of 2005.

Perhaps this loss of the last shred of SJPOA dignity was simply the latest casualty of the economy. Like union leaders across the US, SJPOA leaders George Beattie and Bobby Lopez are faced with the likelihood of painful concessions - like giving back pay increases. When they couldn't bring the bread to the workers' table maybe they opted to bring the circus instead (much like when the Atlanta police union boss who, when unable to get the mayor to resolve issues resulting from the city's privatization of workmen's compensation, recently told the City Council: "I just want to beat her in the head with a baseball bat sometimes when I think about it.") If so, then they have succeeded in striking up the favorite chorus of police everywhere in the US: we're misunderstood heroes because liberals and the media are out to get us. Now that the Mercury News and two city council members have taken them to task for rattling sabers at the First Amendment [3], it's likely that the insular paranoia of San Jose police will increase - and there will be a corresponding decrease in attention paid to their union leaders' lack of tangible achievements.

But SJPOA leaders should hope that other union folks not only ignore the missing bread, but also don't look too closely at the circus. Curious minds may begin to wonder how the union's lawyer, John Tennant, could approve of the video, and George's even viler hit piece [4] (they were surely vetted for legality), when Tennant's profile [5] states:

In 2002, John was awarded a Fulbright grant to study police unionism in Paris, France - specifically, how police unions and immigrants' right groups might lessen the tensions in the strife-torn suburbs outlying Paris between the French police and primarily Muslim immigrants from France's former colonies in North Africa.

Did his research conclude that tensions would ease if the Paris police union published videos mocking the way Muslim immigrants spoke French, and wrote articles calling moderate organizers "criminals" and "thugs"? Perhaps he should have prolonged his studies: the Paris Muslim/North African suburbs did erupt in rebellion in 2005 (mostly car-burnings) - sparked by a police incident. Around that time, France's trash-talking Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy did his part to ease tensions by calling for the neighborhoods to be "cleaned with a power hose", and described rebel youths as "gangrene" and "scum". Sarkozy's tactics seemed to have gotten results: in 2007 (after Sarkozy had risen to president) another police incident sparked another rebellion in those suburbs - but this time news reports alleged that youths targeted police with bullets, Molotov cocktails, and acid. Is this what SJPOA leaders want to bring to San Jose?

Protection racket, aimed at the weak and vulnerable?
Bobby also gets in a shot or two in his own article, but it should not be read while the brain is functioning. Otherwise, one risks an overdose of hypocrisy. He describes his experience at the same City Council meeting where George heard a discouraging word as a "threat":

After listening quietly for over an hour, I had an opportunity to speak. I have to admit that, for the first time since I became President, I lost it. I decided not to read my prepared statement and told them instead that I was angry. We have a small police department that has to protect a city of a over a million people... I demanded that the Council stick up for the officers in this city... I told the council that officers are tired and need their support. I warned them that soon we would not be able to protect the people of this City. [6]

Wait a second, Bobby...Is that a threat? Sounds like a threat to us (we learned this from the SJPOA video's Travis Bickle moment). Didn't SJPD Lt. George Beattie, while pictured in full badge and uniform, declare: "In my opinion, when an individual threatens elected officials with violence if they do not get the outcome they so desire, that is criminal and outrageous behavior."? Up against the wall and spread 'em, Bobby.

Thanks for the memories
Of course, the SJPOA leaders know the crowd they are playing to. When George spews his farcical rant: "Are they on the side of us, the protectors of the weak and vulnerable? Or are they on the side of the thugs..", he plays to a comic-book superhero self-image frequently evoked in SJPOA online magazine (Vanguard) interviews with members. Some of us may have difficulty envisioning the source of their pride - or their joy:

"I worked with Teddy for the whole swing shift, it was a month long, and can't remember a date we didn't make stops or take someone to jail. It was a lot of fun....We get to take bad people and put them in a good place. "
Officer Steve Donohue [7]

"I was just an aggressive policeman and loved to get out of the car and loved to talk to people and make arrests...We just love to turn and burn. If you are put in a police car...here's what you need to do - get in your car and make as many stops and as many arrests as you can and do as much follow up as you can and that's what we did... But it was fun. It was absolutely fun."
Capt. Ernie Carter [8]

"All the deviants and crooks were out at Charlie's Liquors and at Winchells Donuts. I used a large barrel and it had a metal top on it and that was my field interview booth, and I would stake that out on swing shift. If you wanted to walk by my corner and you were a deviant, you looked like a crook, you were a pimp, you were a prostitute, or anything there in between, you got stopped, you emptied your pockets, and we ran you for warrants. I tell you, we made a lot of pinches that way and arrested a lot of crooks on warrants. And low [sic] and behold, all the deviants and all the lowlife scum at 5th and Clara, where we had a big problem tended not to be there anymore."
Sergeant Tom Murphy [9]

But that was way back in The Day. Now, lo and behold, these Travis Bickles of SJPD see all the deviants and lowlife scum showing up at City Council meetings - actually complaining about how they're treated! My, how times have changed...

VANGUARD: Times have changed, and you're right Dave. The way we handled calls back then, and even in the '80's when I got hired with the S.O. we just took care of business. Back then, crooks thanked you for the beating.

NEWMAN: Yeah, you drug 'em on the ground like a troll and you put 'em up in the chair and dusted 'em off, and they would apologize to you for you, uh, kicking their ass.

VANGUARD: Yeah, you're right. They would literally tell everybody else that's hootin' and hollerin' to shut up.

NEWMAN: "You don't mess with San Jose. This was my beating, I deserved it, and leave SJPD alone."
Officer Juan Reyes (VANGUARD) interviewing Sergeant Dave Newman [10]

If George and Bobby are missing that love from the lowlife, perhaps they should heed the advice of Sergeant Newman:

"If you want to be loved, be a fireman."

Me, I'm Old School. George and Bobby: thanks for the beating. This anti-police thug deviant appreciates what you've done for the cause.

Notes:

1. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/05/18600692.php
2. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/09/09/17660181.php
3. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/06/10/18601298.php
4. http://www.sjpoa.com/Messages.asp?i=368#Msg368
5. http://www.sjpoa.com/Directors.asp?i=4#Bio4
6. http://www.sjpoa.com/Messages.asp?i=367#Msg367
7. http://www.sjpoa.com/Vanguard_Article.asp?i=26&a=1#Msg26
8. http://www.sjpoa.com/Vanguard_Article.asp?i=29&a=1#Msg29
9. http://www.sjpoa.com/Vanguard_Article.asp?i=12&a=1#Msg12
10. http://www.sjpoa.com/Vanguard_Article.asp?i=61&a=1#Msg61