If you've gotten these types of calls, you know what kind of scam they're running. The caller claims that they're raising money for firefighters or police, with the words "fallen" or "wounded" sprinkled liberally throughout the pitch, so, "Can I count on you today for a $15 or $20 pledge?"
As you imagine, there are endless variations along these lines, limited only by the caller's brass balls, lack of tact, or vivid imagination (take your pick). Apparently, the national FOP doesn't rely on telemarketing to raise money, but some local or state chapters do. Given this muddying of the waters, I can see why dropping those FOP initials might get some unwary targets to part with their money.
They've gotten a bit more creative, as well. The Squawker and I rely on our answering machine to screen out those offending calls, but lately, I'm not always hearing it spit out a phone number as the call comes through. As a result, you end up grabbing it, for fear of missing a call that you're expecting.
Then you'll get an opening line that sounds like this: "Hello, is Darren there?" Pause. Silence. At this point, I might say something like, "Going once, going twice, going..." And before you know it, they've started on their pitch, and they're off to the races.
"Look," you tell them, "quit calling here! I'm not interested!"
But the verbal static flies thick and past, like some angry, giant buzzing insect, on and on and on and on in your ear, unforgiving and unrelenting...
"Bzzz-Bzzz-Bzzz... Good afternoon, sir... Blah,blah,blah... Every day, police officers... Bzzz-Bzzz-Bzzz.. Put themselves on the line... Blah, blah, blah ... Can I put you down for... for Bzzz-Bzz-Bzz... Can I count on your... Blah, blah, blah... Give us money, give us money, give us money... Bzzz-Bzz-Bzzz...”
Ka-Bang!!
Ka-Bang!!
Ka-Bang!!
And that, as the cliche goes, is all she wrote. Or he wrote, in this case, since the caller is usually a he (as is their boss, typically). The whole exercise, like so many of these "reach out and put the touch on someone" sorts of hustles, leaves you feeling deflated and frustrated, at the same time.
Why'd I argue with them in the first place? That's why the giant buzzing insect kicks into gear, because it all cares about is getting you to pry open your wallet. If you hang up instead, so what? They've raised your blood pressure, and they can just move on, a few seconds faster, to the next sucker.
Trust me, it's all enough to make say: "Defund the police, if it means not getting anymore of their scam phone calls!" Whether critics should give in to that infamous American tendency of reducing everything to a three-word slogan, or a 30-second ad, is an altogether different matter entirely. However...
Police unions have long been regarded as organized labor's outliers, for many, many good reasons, as Teen Vogue notes (see link below): "For one thing, no other union members hold the legal ability to straight-up kill another human being while on the job."
One other key distinction is worth noting. Historically, labor unions have traditionally focused on organizing particular groups of workers, focused on the idea of, "We're all in this together, to organize Company ABC, to achieve XYZ." Police unions, seem to see themselves as largely standing apart from these goals -- because their objectives (protecting property, stopping the "bad guys," however you define them) are different. It's the nature of the job, as author Kristian Williams states: "The police are clearly part of the managerial machinery of capitalism. Their status as 'workers' is therefore problematic."
And that's before we get to the other aspects, whether it's their penchant for straight up reactionary politics, or an unblinking institutional culture -- they don't call it "the thin blue" for nothin', right? -- that fiercely, vigorously and unabashedly resists any kind of change, no matter how desperately needed. As many critics noted, after George Floyd's murder, a system that allowed his chief killer, Derek Chauvin, to remain on the job -- after a record of 18 complaints, and three fatal shootings -- is beyond broken or dysfunctional.
Of course, these problems haven't prevented the likes of President Biden, or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from continuing to push the dangerously flawed, if downright delusionary, "bad apple" narrative, the one that reads like this: "It's just a few bad apples that spoil the whole bunch. If we could just get rid of them, the system will correct itself."
I understand the logic, as hypocritical as it sounds. Police and corrections unions wield enormous political capital, greased mainly by America's natural oldest profession -- the one that consists of buying and selling of politicians who don't mind dropping their drawers, then spreading their legs, and "doing the business." I assume it's the real reason why the FOP and the National Council of Border Patrol Officers became Donald Trump's only union endorsements in 2016; as my late father often said, "One crow doesn't peck another."
The latter fact, in my eyes, is enough reason to avoid giving the FOP and its ilk a nickel, even without all the other drama surrounding their bogus telemarketing scams. Thankfully, more and more people are pushing back harder against the "bad apple" narrative, as the "Drop The Cops" campaign demonstrates (see link below).
Imagine the fun, when I tell the phone creep, "Sure, Darren's right here. Just give him a chance to reach for his checkbook." Cue the "track," one, two, three, or four, it doesn't make any difference, followed by a blast of:
Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,
Before The Nightstick Cracks Your Skull)*:
Action Network
Tell The AFL-CIO: Drop The Cops:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/afl-cio-stop-representing-cops
In These Times
Early Draft Of AFL-CIO's Report On Police Reform
Shows A Commitment To Defending Police Unions:
https://inthesetimes.com/article/afl-cio-police-reform-unions-black-lives-matter
Politico.com
Local Unions Defy AFL-CIO
In Push To Oust Police Unions:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/30/police-union-ouster-346249
The Guardian
It's Time To Kick Police Unions Out Of The Labor Movement:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/13/police-unions-afl-cio-labor-movement
Teen Vogue
Police Unions: What To Know And Why:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-to-know-police-unions-labor-movement
The New York Times
How Police Unions
Became Such Powerful Opponents To Reform Efforts:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html
(Reckoner's Note: All these links popped up after I typed in, "time to kick police unions out of labor movement." Make of that whatever you like.)
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