Cops against Romney

[Luddly Neddite]

National Police Union Refuses to Endorse Romney, First Such Refusal in 98 Years
For the first time in 98 years, the 330,000-member Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) will not endorse a candidate for president this year. The FOP supported the Republican candidate for President in 2008, 2004, and 2000, and its non-endorsement is seen as a refutation of Mitt Romney.

National Police Union Refuses to Endorse Romney, First Such Refusal in 98 Years « Main Street

 

[Political Junky]

National Police Union Refuses to Endorse Romney, First Such Refusal in 98 Years
For the first time in 98 years, the 330,000-member Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) will not endorse a candidate for president this year. The FOP supported the Republican candidate for President in 2008, 2004, and 2000, and its non-endorsement is seen as a refutation of Mitt Romney.

National Police Union Refuses to Endorse Romney, First Such Refusal in 98 Years « Main Street

Who could blame them?

From your link:

Why the change? One big reason was Mitt Romney’s support of Senate Bill 5 in Ohio, which stripped collective bargaining rights from police officers.

People familiar with the group’s decision said leaders had been disturbed by Mr. Romney’s statements of strong support for several antiunion initiatives, particularly the move in Ohio to restrict the collective-bargaining rights of public-union employees, including police and firefighters. The measure was overturned by voters in Ohio last year.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

Cops are union so this is a surprise why?

 

[koshergrl]

When did we start calling unions "cops"?

 

[ginscpy]

Because he imposonated police officers as a prank in the 60s???

Don't supose he will get the Humane Society eendorsement either..............d

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Wow, no union endorsements for Romney..... let me show you my "shocked" face....


WHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT???????????????

 

[AmyNation]

They won't endorse Obama either.

 

[ginscpy]

They won't endorse Obama either.

hard-drug user...............................

 

[Black_Label]

Cops are union so this is a surprise why?

Because they haven't done so in 98 years. Police and fighter fighter unions almost always endorse republicans, but as of late the GOP are going after them as well.

 

[koshergrl]

No, the GOP is going after unions.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Cops are union so this is a surprise why?

Because they haven't done so in 98 years. Police and fighter fighter unions almost always endorse republicans, but as of late the GOP are going after them as well.

If they could read, they would know that.

They might also learn that the Koch's are pushing to end minimum wage in order to drive all other wages into the ditch.

The R race to the bottom continues.

But, don't worry, its good for the one percent and that's all that really matters.

 

[Star]

FOP - 108th Congress


Legislative Supported by the FOP in the 108th Congress


Below are some of the issues the National Legislative Office lobbied for in the 108th Congress:

• H.R. 21 (Leach, R-IA), the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act," would make it a crime to accept financial instruments for debts incurred while gambling illegally on the Internet and create rules requiring financial institutions to use designated methods to block or filter Internet gambling transactions;
• H.R. 101 (Green, D-TX), the "Law Enforcement Officers Flag Memorial Act," would provide the families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty with a flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 134 (Lewis, R-KY) added Kentucky to the list of those States permitted to operate a separate retirement system for certain public employees, a reform needed following the 2003 merger of the local governments of Louisville and Jefferson County, was incorporated into H.R. 743 (now PL 108-203), the "Social Security Protection Act";
• PASSED!!! H.R. 218 (Cunningham, R-CA), the "Law Enforcement Officers' Safety Act," would exempt qualified active and retired law enforcement officers from State and local prohibitions on the carrying of concealed firearms;
• H.R. 293 (Kelly, R-NY) would amend 18 U.S.C. to prohibit taking a child hostage in order to evade arrest;
• H.R. 404 (Andrews, D-NJ), the "Open Air Drug Market Penalty Act," would amend the Controlled Substances Act to provide an additional five years imprisonment for knowingly committing a Federal drug offense within 500 feet of the place where any similar offense was committed in the preceding 48 hours;
• H.R. 594 (McKeon, R-CA), the "Social Security Fairness Act," would repeal both the "Windfall Elimination Provision" and the "Government Pension Offset" in current Social Security law;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 718/PL 108-20 (Coble, R-NC), the "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act," which amends 21 U.S.C. 856, making it applicable to those who lease, rent, use, manage or control a place, either permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing or using any controlled substance or who make such a place available for use, with or without compensation, for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance, was incorporated into S. 151 (now PL 108-21), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act";
• H.R. 729 (Green, R-WI), legislation authorizing a three-year pilot program to assist law enforcement officers purchasing homes in locally designated at-risk areas;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 743/PL 108-203 (Shaw, R-FL), the "Social Security Protection Act," enhances efforts to end fraud and abuse in Social Security programs by strengthening protections for vulnerable recipients dependent on representative payees to manage their financial affairs, by prohibiting fugitive felons and probation/parole violators from receiving Social Security disability benefits, and by enhancing the ability of the Inspector General to fight fraud;
• H.R. 782, Brady (R-TX), eliminates the ten percent (10%) early withdrawal penalty for public safety employees participating in Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP);
• H.R. 814 (Kildee, D-MI), the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act," would recognize the right of law enforcement and other public safety officers to bargain collectively with their employers;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 919 (Etheridge, D-NC), the "Hometown Heroes Survivor Benefits Fairness Act," would provide Public Safety Officer Benefits (PSOB) compensation to the eligible survivors of Federal, State and local law enforcement officers who suffer a fatal heart attack or stroke while, or within of twenty-four (24) hours after, engaging in a line of duty action or participating in training exercise, and creates a presumption that such deaths are line of duty, unless rebutted by competent medical evidence indicating that the heart attack or stroke was in fact the result of something other than a line of duty action;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 1104/PL 108-20 (Sensenbrenner, R-WI), the "Child Abduction Prevention Act," which allows judges the discretion to extend the term for supervision of released sex offenders up to a maximum of life, extends the statute of limitations for child abductions and sex crimes to the life of the child victim, denies pretrial release for child rapists and abductors, requires a mandatory life sentence for twice-convicted child sex offenders, mandates a minimum 20-year prison sentence for the kidnapping of a minor by a non-family member, authorizes funding for a Sex Offender Apprehension Program (SOAP), allowing Federal funds to be used by State and local law enforcement to track sex offenders that violate the terms of their release, adds new wiretap predicates that relate to sexual exploitation crimes against children, aims to prevent international parental kidnapping by adding attempt liability to the definition of that offense, criminalizes "sex tour" operations and punishes those who travel to foreign nations to engage in illicit sex with minors, provides prosecutors with better tools to prosecute persons who seek to lure children to pornographic websites through the use of misleading domain names and increases the penalties of this practice, and provides for the creation of a national website containing information about registered sex offenders, was incorporated into S. 151 (now PL 108-21), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act";
• H.R. 1336 (Ryan, R-WI), the "Mortgage Insurance Fairness Act," would correct the inequitable treatment of mortgage insurance as a financing cost associated with buying a home by making it tax deductible;
• H.R. 1708 (Visclosky, D-IN), the "Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act," reauthorizes the grant program through 2007;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 1731/PL 108-275 (Carter R-TX), the "Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act," which provides significantly enhanced penalties by defining a new criminal offense, "aggravated identity theft" and expands the existing identify theft prohibition to close several gaps in the existing law by criminalizing the possession of stolen identification with intent to commit or further another crime;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 1770/PL 108-21 (Burr, R-NC), the "Smallpox Emergency Personnel Protection Act," provides Federal benefits to law enforcement officers, public safety personnel, health care workers, and smallpox response team members who suffer injury or death as a result of being vaccinated against smallpox by establishing a program modeled on the Public Safety Officers Benefits (PSOB) Program;
• H.R. 1994 (Strickland, D-OH), the "Public Safety Act," would ensure that the incarceration of inmates is not provided by private contractors or vendors and that persons charged or convicted of an offense against the United States shall be housed in facilities managed and maintained by Federal, State, or local governments;
• H.R. 2060 (Platts, R-PA), the "Federal Law Enforcement Pension Adjustment Equity Act," would permit annuitants of the U.S. Park Police and U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division to receive adjustments in pension benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled as a result of the transfer of active officers to a new pay scale under the Law Enforcement Pay Equity Act of 2000;
• H.R. 2135 (Keller, R-FL), the "Law Enforcement Officers Due Process Act," would provide grants to law enforcement agencies that ensure that their officers are afforded due process when involved in a case that may lead to dismissal, demotion, suspension, or transfer;
• H.R. 2143 (Bachus, R-AL), the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act," directs Federal banking regulators to create rules requiring financial institutions to use designated methods to block or filter Internet gambling transactions;
• H.R. 2171 (Maloney, D-NY), the "Federal Reserve Labor-Management Relations Accountability Act" would include the Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve under the provisions of the Federal Labor Relations Act (FLRA);
• H.R. 2296 (Simmons, R-CT), the "Federal No Frills Prison Act," would prohibit the use of Federal funds for certain amenities and personal comforts in the Federal prison system, including in-cell TV viewing, instruction in boxing or karate, and the possession of any in-cell heating element;
• H.R. 2442 (Filner, D-CA), the "Law Enforcement Officers' Equity Act," would amend the definition of "law enforcement officer" under Title 5, U.S. Code, to include Federal police officers and others under the "6(c)" retirement provisions of Chapters 83 and 84;
• H.R. 2582 (Deutsch, D-FL), the "Foster Child Protection Act of 2003," which requires caseworkers to notify law enforcement immediately when a foster child goes missing;
• H.R. 2710 (Taylor, R-NC), the "Public Safety Officers Flag Act," requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to furnish a flag to drape the coffin of each public safety officer killed in the line of duty, and to be given to the next of kin after burial;
• H.R. 2967 (Ramstad, R-MN), the "State and Local Law Enforcement Officers' Discipline, Accountability, and Due Process Act," would protect the due process rights of officers during internal investigations;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 3054/P.L. 108-133 (T. Davis, R-VA), the "District of Columbia Military Retirement Equity Act of 2003," would permit military service previously performed by members and former members of the Metropolitan Police Department, the United States Park Police, and the United States Secret Service to count as creditable service for purposes of calculating retirement annuities payable to such members upon payment of a contribution by such members;
• PASSED!!! H.R. 3205/P.L. 108-196 (J. Davis, R-VA), the "Federal Law Enforcement Pay and Benefits Parity Act of 2003," requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to report to Congress on the disparities in pay and benefits among Federal LEOs in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of government; and requires OPM to provide recommendations on how to eliminate these disparities by April 2004;
• H.R. 3266 (Cox, R-CA), the "Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act," which would authorize the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to make grants to first responders;
• H.R. 3693 (Scott, D-VA), the "Identity Theft Investigation and Prosecution Act," would authorize $100 million to the U.S. Department of Justice for the investigation and prosecution of identity theft and identity fraud cases;
• H.R. 3815 (Slaughter, D-NY), the "Badge and Uniform Security and Trustworthiness (BUST) Act of 2003," applies the current law prohibitions against the use of counterfeit police badges to the use of any public safety officer insignia or article of clothing;
• H.R. 3831 (T. Davis, R-VA), the "Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act," would reauthorize the Federal ban on certain types of assault weapons for an additional ten years;
• H.R. 4391 (Brady, R-TX), the "Public Servant Retirement Protection Act," would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and replace it with a more equitable, individualized calculation of Social Security benefits;
• H.J.Res. 4 (Cunningham, R-CA) would amend the Constitution to give Congress the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States;
• H.J.Res. 10 (Royce, R-CA) would amend the Constitution to provide for the rights of victims of violent crime;
• PASSED!!! S. 37 (McConnell, R-KY), added Kentucky to the list of those States permitted to operate a separate retirement system for certain public employees, a reform needed following the 2003 merger of the local governments of Louisville and Jefferson County, was incorporated into H.R. 743 (now PL 108-203), the "Social Security Protection Act";
• PASSED!!! S. 121/PL 108-21 (Hutchison, R-TX), the "National AMBER Alert Network Act," which establishes a National AMBER Network and improves the current system of AMBER Alert plans that exist in several States by establishing an AMBER Alert Coordinator within the Department of Justice to assist States with their AMBER plans, was incorporated into S. 151 (now PL 108-21), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act";
• PASSED!!! S. 151/PL 108-21 (Hatch, R-UT), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act," which would plug a loophole in Federal law by allowing prosecutions to proceed when the pornography includes persons who appear virtually indistinguishable from actual minors and prohibit the pandering or solicitation of anything represented to be obscene child pornography;
• PASSED!!! S. 226/PL 108-21 (Biden, D-DE), the "Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act," would amend 21 U.S.C. 856, making it applicable to those who lease, rent, use, manage or control a place, either permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing or using any controlled substance or who make such a place available for use, with or without compensation, for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance, was incorporated into S. 151 (now PL 108-21), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act";
• PASSED!!! S. 253 (Campbell, R-CO), the "Law Enforcement Officers' Safety Act," would exempt qualified active and retired law enforcement officers from State and local prohibitions on the carrying of concealed firearms;
• S. 349 (Feinstein, D-CA), the "Social Security Fairness Act," would repeal both the "Windfall Elimination Provision" and the "Government Pension Offset" in current Social Security Law;
• PASSED!!! S. 459 (Leahy, D-VT), the "Hometown Heroes Survivor Benefits Fairness Act," would provide Public Safety Officer Benefits (PSOB) compensation to the eligible survivors of Federal, State and local law enforcement officers who suffer a fatal heart attack or stroke while, or within of twenty-four (24) hours after, engaging in a line of duty action or participating in training exercise, and creates a presumption that such deaths are line of duty, unless rebutted by competent medical evidence indicating that the heart attack or stroke was in fact the result of something other than a line of duty action;
• S. 606 (Gregg, R-NH), the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act," would recognize the right of law enforcement and other public safety officers to bargain collectively with their employers;
• S. 627 (Kyl, R-AZ), the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act," would make it a crime to accept financial instruments for debts incurred while gambling illegally on the Internet and create rules requiring financial institutions to use designated methods to block or filter Internet gambling transactions;
• S. 748, (Santorum, R-PA), eliminates the ten percent (10%) early withdrawal penalty for public safety employees participating in Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP);
• S. 764 (Campbell, R-CO), the "Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act," reauthorizes the grant program through 2007;
• PASSED!!! S. 773/PL-108-21 (Leahy, D-VT), the "Protecting Our Children Comes First Act," which reauthorizes and increases Federal funding to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), was incorporated into S. 151 (now PL 108-21), the "Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act";
• S. 819 (Mikulski, D-MD), the "Law Enforcement Officers Retirement Equity Act," would amend the definition of law enforcement officer under Title 5, USC, to include Federal police officers and others under the "6(c)" retirement provisions of Chapters 83 and 84;
• S. 1177 (Hatch, R-UT), the "Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act," would lower the threshold of the number of cigarettes to be treated as contraband from 60,000 to 10,000, strengthen the reporting requirements for interstate cigarette vendors, making violations of those requirements a felony instead of a misdemeanor and increase the civil penalties for violating these reporting requirements and allow State Attorneys General to prosecute violators in Federal court;
• S. 1245 (Collins, R-ME), the "Homeland Security Grant Enhancement Act," which will streamline the current process for homeland security grant programs and increase the flexibility of these grants;
• S. 1277 (Biden, D-DE), the "State and Local Law Enforcement Officers' Discipline, Accountability and Due Process Act," would protect the due process rights of officers during internal investigations;
• PASSED!!! S. 1581 (Cantwell, D-WA), the "Identify Theft Victims Assistance Act," which will assist law enforcement in the investigation and capture of identity thieves by allowing victims to designate local law enforcement as their agent in obtaining business records and other documents related to ongoing fraud and by providing that businesses may not be held liable for any disclosure made in good faith to further a prosecution of identity theft, was incorporated into H.R. 2622 (now PL 108-159), the "Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act";
• S. 1612 (Collins, R-ME), the "Homeland Security Technology Improvement Act," which would would authorize $50 million for the Director of the Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) to provide advanced counterterrorism technology, equipment, and information to law enforcement agencies to help them prevent, detect, and apprehend terrorists;
• PASSED!!! S. 1683/P.L. 108-196 (Voinovich, R-OH), the "Federal Law Enforcement Pay and Benefits Parity Act of 2003," requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to report to Congress on the disparities in pay and benefits among Federal LEOs in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of government; and requires OPM to provide recommendations on how to eliminate these disparities by April 2004;
• S. 1735 (Hatch, R-UT), the "Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act," is a comprehensive, national approach to the problem of gang violence which would provide Federal funding to support joint Federal, State and local law enforcement efforts to combat violent gangs and amend the Federal criminal code to define new offenses which will enable law enforcement to fight gangs and gang-related activity more effectively;
• S. 1818 (Graham, R-SC), the "Law Enforcement Officers Due Process Act," would provide grants to law enforcement agencies that ensure that their officers are afforded due process when involved in a case that may lead to dismissal, demotion, suspension, or transfer;
• S. 1849 (Schumer, D-NY), the "Homeownership Opportunities for Uniformed Services and Educators Act (HOUSE Act)," authorizes 1 percent down Federal Housing Authority (FHA) mortgage loans for police officers and other public employees to purchase a home within the jurisdiction that employs them and would defer the customary 1.5 percent up-front FHA premium and further reduce it by 20 percent for each year of public service to the community and waive it entirely after five years of continuous service;
• S. 2109 (Feinstein, D-CA), the "Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act" would reauthorize the Federal ban on certain types of assault weapons for an additional ten years;
• S. 2455 (Hutchison, R-TX), the "Public Servant Retirement Protection Act," would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and replace it with a more equitable, individualized calculation of Social Security benefits;
• S. 2612 (Mikulski, D-MD), the "Federal Law Enforcement Pension Adjustment Equity Act," would permit annuitants of the U.S. Park Police and U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division to receive adjustments in pension benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled as a result of the transfer of active officers to a new pay scale under Law Enforcement Pay Equity Act of 2000;
• S. 2760 (Kyl, R-AZ), the "Public Safety Officers' Defense Act," which ensure a reasonable and timely Federal review of State convictions for the murder of a law enforcement officer;
• S. J. Res. 1 (Kyl, R-AZ) would amend the Constitution to provide for the rights of victims of violent crime;
• S. J. Res. 4 (Hatch, R-UT) would amend the Constitution to give Congress the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States;
• Legislation which will provide a Federal death penalty for criminals convicted of murdering a local or State police officer;
• Legislation which will enable Federal law enforcement officers, who retire earlier than other Federal civil servants, to begin collecting from their 401(k) pension plans upon retirement, instead of at the age of 59 ½;
• Legislation entitled the "Veterans' Affairs Police Reform Act," to include VA Police as law enforcement officers eligible under CSRS, to grant VA officers the authority to carry firearms on duty, to create an Undersecretary for VA Police, and to make eligible VA Police for survivor's death benefit/annuity options;
• Legislation which will provide continued funding for Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) projects;
• Legislation to provide Federal law enforcement officers with a rebuttable presumption that a causal connection exists between their occupation and heart, lung, and hypertension disorders;
• Legislation which would protect the personal information of law enforcement officers and their families from public access;
• Legislation to exempt retired law enforcement officers from all Federal, State, and local taxes on their retirement income, regardless of their place of residence; and
• Legislation entitled the "Federal Law Enforcement Protection Act" to address the concerns of the more than 70,000 Federal uniformed law enforcement officers.

 

[Star]

FOP - 108th Congress

• H.R. 3831 (T. Davis, R-VA), the "Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act," would reauthorize the Federal ban on certain types of assault weapons for an additional ten years;
• S. 2109 (Feinstein, D-CA), the "Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act" would reauthorize the Federal ban on certain types of assault weapons for an additional ten years;

FOP - U.S. Presidential Endorsement Process

U.S. Presidential Endorsement Process of the National Fraternal Order of Police

The Grand Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police is the nation's oldest, largest, and most influential organization of law enforcement professionals in the United States. As such, we play a prominent role in the formation of national law enforcement policy. In order to maintain our preeminent role, the Grand Lodge endorses a candidate for President whom our membership believes will be the most effective advocate for the rank-and-file law enforcement officer.



Under the Constitution and By-Laws of the Grand Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police, and Standing Resolutions adopted by the membership and the National Biennial Conference:

• Only the Board of National Trustees may endorse a candidate for President!!! No other entity within the Fraternal Order of Police may take any public action with respect to the acceptability of any candidate for President and no other endorsement of a candidate for President using the names and marks of the F.O.P. will be permitted.
• State and local lodges, who may be approached by the Presidential campaigns, must refer all requests and inquires to the Grand Lodge.
• F.O.P. members and officers should refrain from speculating on which candidate the Grand Lodge will choose to endorse, as such predictions may be used by either political campaign in a way harmful to the Grand Lodge endorsement process.

The endorsement process:

• The National President and Vice President will appoint a U.S. Presidential Screening Committee (Screening Committee).
• The Screening Committee will develop a standard questionnaire for presentation at the Fall Board Meeting prior to the Presidential Election year.
• The Screening Committee then provides each "viable Presidential candidate" with the questionnaire and a timely opportunity to respond.
• The Screening Committee will also attempt to personally interview each candidate that receives a questionnaire.
• Following the completion of the questionnaire, the Screening Committee will meet in executive session and produce a written report for distribution to the membership through the office of the National Secretary. All the materials provided to the Screening Committee will not be distributed until such time as their report is completed.
• The Screening Committee will submit to the Board of National Trustees a report, but no action will be taken on that report until the Fall Board meeting of the Election year, at which point the National Board of Trustees will vote on the endorsement.
• The vote of the National Board of Trustees must occur before 20 September.
• A candidate who receives a two-thirds majority of the National Board of Trustees receives the endorsement of the Grand Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police.
• Each State Lodge will set up a process by which the members of the local lodges within the State Lodge would convey their preference for a candidate or no endorsement to their National Trustee.
• Each State Lodge's process must be reported to the National Board.

The endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police is a statement to the nation as well as our members that our aims and goals—fair treatment for law enforcement employees and tough anti-crime measures—are the same as our candidate, and that we believe our candidate will best serve the interests of the law enforcement community. We urge all of our members to support the endorsed candidate when they go to the polls in November 2004.