23 Mar 2011 No Money for Fraternal Order of Police, a Union Lobbyist Organization

The Fraternal Order of Police telephoned me today seeking a personal donation.

I asked right off if the Fraternal Order of Police is a union, and was told, “no ma’am.” So I looked the group up on the Internet while the caller told me how the FOP plans to mail me a pledge card, which, she said, it hopes I will send back with a gift.

By then, I had time to read the top of what appears to be the Fraternal Order of Police’s national website, which began:

The Fraternal Order of Police must stand up to these unfounded attacks on Public Employees

Across the country special interest groups are using Public Employees as scapegoats for the financial problems caused by politicians. They are using these scare tactics with the intention of furthering their own agenda to gut public pensions and make Collective Bargaining illegal for Public Employees at every level. There has been attack after attack on public safety in many areas: staffing, pensions, pay cuts, work furloughs, layoffs, and other cutbacks across the board.

The National Fraternal Order of Police is doing everything we can to help our state and local lodges stand up to these attacks against Public Employees. Our staff members have been meeting with state and local lodge leadership to provide guidance and support as we combat the storm of misinformation and smear tactics used by anti-labor forces across the country. While the current campaign against us is largely a state issue, it has national implications. The National Fraternal Order of Police is committed to assisting in every way possible to coordinate our efforts during this time of turmoil in our state legislatures.

In addition to the other assistance we are providing, we are gathering information on what is happening to Public Employees on the state level as well as providing information on how the nation as a whole views Public Employees and the issues that impact them.

We will only succeed if we all STAND UP together!…

I take her at her word that the Fraternal Order of Police is not a union, but based on its website, it is a lobbyist for unions. Needless to say, union lobbyists got no donation from me. Addendum: A comment from a reader:

The FOP is not a union and it is not a lobbying company. Their membership is open to anyone in law enforcement. They provide insurance for LEO’s (which is hard to get because of the danger in that line of work), lawyer assistance if needed, counseling for officers and families in times of need. They do not represent one department of police but the whole nation. They fight to keep cities from totally gutting the budgets for departments but their fight is not against the cities/states but for the officers’ safety. I’m not asking you to donate to them, that’s a personal choice. I’m just asking you to reconsider your statement that they are lobbyists for unions. My husband’s department does not have a union, it’s way too small. But, if he needed the FOP to help him out they would in a heartbeat.

If anyone has an opinion on this, I recommend visiting our Facebook page, where others are discussing this. I also commented further here.