Police Protests at National Governors Association Conference

Police officers from across the state continued to converge on Boston in an attempt to let the public know how Governor Patrick has failed law enforcement and actively worked to take officers off the street.

Citing Patrick’s failure to fulfill his campaign promise of 1,000 new cops, his slashing of the Quinn Bill, public safety layoffs, the push for flagmen, attacking health care, pensions, and collective bargaining rights, police converged on Fenway Park Friday night and Castle Island on Saturday night to voice their displeasure.

The Herald reported that a Patrick spokesperson defended the Governor, stating; “the governor is not going to back down from his common-sense civilian flagger reform that has saved taxpayers millions of dollars and put Massachusetts in line with every other state in the nation… He has also focused millions of dollars of state and federal funds to keep police and firefighters on duty during these difficult economic times for families across the commonwealth.” The Patrick administration continues to try and focus the debate on the controversial issue of police details and take credit for federal stimulus funds while neglecting to fund a single State Police academy class during his tenure. The last State Police recruit class graduated in September 2006, the month Patrick won the Democrat primary. The spokesperson must have forgotten about the protester’s complaints of  Patrick’s failure to live up to his campaign promise of 1,000 new cops and his malicious assault on the Quinn Bill.

While the Patrick administration continues with its hollow rhetoric alleging that the state has saved “millions of dollars” with flagmen, I’m still waiting to hear his comments defending the $53 per hour pay rate for civilian flagmen on the North Shore. I also must have missed the press conference thanking the flagmen for responding to crimes in progress, catching purse snatchers and bank robbers, and car-jack suspects armed with handguns. Just a small snippet of the work done by detail cops on a regular basis and personally witnessed by this author.

Thank you to all the cops who came up to Boston this weekend, “Together We Can!”

-Attorney John J. MacLaughlan

The following article comes from WBZ.com:

Hundreds of police officers showed up Friday night outside of Fenway Park to give Gov. Deval Patrick an earful as he hosts the National Governors’ Association Conference.

The officers are upset with the governor for his decisions that limit their pay and benefits.

No matter where the conference is, each year organizers know they will encounter protesters.

Using bagpipes, drums, even vuvuzelas, and chanting “Yes we can!” officers from around the state were dedicated to taking attention away from the conference.

While Gov. Patrick welcomed his colleagues from around the country to Massachusetts, downstairs, just outside the gates of Fenway, off-duty officers booed as each bus carrying the lawmakers pulled up.

The officers carried signs with slogans such as: “The Big Lie Starring Deval Patrick”; “Together We Can Dump Deval”; and “Higher Taxes Less Cops More Crime.”

Gov. Patrick’s relationship with police unions has been rocky, and is highlighted by his support of civilian flaggers instead of some police details.

But the officers said that’s only part of the problem.

“This isn’t about details, as he always says, or just about the Quinn bill,” said Patrick Rose, of the Patrolman’s Association. “Is that part of it? Yes it is, but that’s no more than 1/100th of what’s going on. He’s been attacking our health care. He’s been attacking our pension system. He’s been attacking every part of our collective bargaining through legislating our collective bargaining agreements. Wrong.”

The police also plan on having a presence at the planned Governors’ Picnic at Castle Island.

Officers say local families and visitors will be cut off from that area, but the governor says that simply isn’t true.

“It’s not closed. There are parts of it where access is limited to governors and their guests, but the whole complex is not closed,” Gov. Patrick told WBZ.