Cop union boycotting Obama speech in Boston
Anger over President Obama’s many snubs (from the Cambridge Police “acted stupidly” to Ferguson and beyond) has reached a boiling point among cops. As he speaks this morning at a Labor Day breakfast in Boston, President Obama is being boycotted by police unions. Jack Encanacao writes in the Boston Herald:
Jerry Flynn, a Lowell cop on leave while serving as executive director of the New England Police Benevolent Association, said his organization’s executive board has chosen to boycott President Obama’s Labor Day breakfast address in Boston today to make a statement about violence against police:
“Our members are enraged at his lack of support of law enforcement. It’s clear that he has an agenda, and unfortunately the police are not part of his agenda.
Let’s face it, (there have been) eight people killed in a nine-day period, eight police officers, and his silence up until recently has been deafening. And the real sad part of this — and when I went to the White House in the first term with (Vice President) Joe Biden — he said to me that he would be the voice of law enforcement. Well, as much as I love and adore Joe, his voice has been silent as well. So it’s not an Obama problem, it’s an administration problem.
This is a horror show, this is an epidemic of lawless people trying to kill police officers for no apparent reasons. Case in point is the lieutenant who was pumping gas in Houston. Over 7,000 people were at that church, and where was he (Obama)? Why wasn’t he there instead of a unity breakfast?”
Referring to the looting and destruction in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting of Michael Brown, Flynn continued:
“I mean, he had the opportunity to do things then and he didn’t, and all he’s done is escalated and allowed these people that are hellbent on causing problems to do so. We can’t continue to have people who have no intention to do anything but to be disruptive. These aren’t good citizens. These are thugs who go out and try to cause problems.
There’s more. Read the whole thing to understand why Obama has lost the police.