"Fraternal Order of Police"

("a private club") is being interviewed on this Kennedy crash. Who the hell are THEY? I know they operate phonebanks staffed with really aggressive fundraisers - I've gotten a few calls from them, implying that there might be ramifications if I chose not to send a contribution.

Or for you Monty Python fans, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.

Or rather was until the mid-1970s. Now, it's essentially a booster for law enforcement agencies. Here's its site:

http://www.grandlodgefop.org/

It's not as though the group is the second coming of the Gestapo or anything

Members of the Law Enforcement Community (LEO) can join the FOP but in some instances, the FOP represents them in collective bargaining as do the Teamsters, NAGE, AFSME, and others.

They are a hybrid organization.

Yes, they are fundraisers, and they do good work. Sure, do they play on emotions?...Yes...but to say that are saying you will receive negative ramifications if you do not give is completely false.

They buy Kevlar vest for MANY police officers, and do a lot of good work for widows, widowers, and children of slain officers.

You are SO OFF BASE with this it is beyond comprehension.

...connected with the police is beyond reproach, and would never use intimidation tactics? Puh-leaze...

If you reread my post, you will see that I never imply what you posted. If you have a hard time understanding what I wrote, just say so and I will use smaller words, or maybe draw you a picture.

Puh-leaze...LOL

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You are clearly jealous of your brothers. I understand perfectly now.

"Save your smaller words; my vocabulary far exceeds yours."

Because you know me so well eh?

LOL

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I got a call from them "confirming my donation of $50." I've never agreed to send them a dime, and per the very accurate poster you are responding to, when I told the guy this, he said (I'm not making this up), "So... can I confirm your donation, then?" Not once, but twice. Now I never will donte, and hate their organization besides. (I've asked to be removed from their list several times in the past. Think they'll ever be held liable for breaking my state's telemarketing laws? Me either.)

FOP is one of those BAD telephone fundraisers you hear about every now and again. I won't have anything to do with them- EVER.

They are a money-making operation for themselves first. They send the leftovers to the police in order not to run afoul of the attorneys general. They've been in trouble in Massachusetts for this (as have the people who do it for firefighters, too).

had any reason to think they were doing anything wrong. (I live in southeastern MA.)

I think there is a lot of anti-police prejudice on DU in general, but I don't know how it applies to this story (haven't checked the news yet, just caught the headline this morning.)

More wrong than I can understand.

Have you SEEN what they do for people? Have you SEEN the widows, Widowers and Children that they have helped? Have you SEE the Kevlar vest they buy for police officers?

I don't care what they do with my money if they try to force it out of me like they did just a couple weeks ago. They're agressive and in my state what they tried to do is illegal. Fuck 'em. They don't deserve a penny.

I know many people that were helped by them though.

the guy should spend some of his time and money getting his teeth fixed. Or else the FOP should get another PR person.

Just my humble opinion on all this - big whoop and who gives a shit what the FOP announces?

Not in a good mood this morning - sorry :wtf:

but they are a UNION. Something severly lacking in this day and age. (and everyone here can, in some way, thank Unions for that fact that they are receiving a living wage, and not working under sweatshop conditions)

is NO! They do good work.

I upset them a while back. I won't go into the details, but it was surely worse than hanging up on them. I didn't have any negative ramifications afterwords.

They give you a sticker to put on your car, supposedly to show support. I think most people think this will prevent police from pulling them over.

...this FPO spokesman, Lou Cannon, is a very vocal Kennedy Hater, check out this post from last night:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2264053&mesg_id=2264862>

themselves as being police (or fire) related organizations.
See: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/cai.html for one.

from another state soliciting funds for his state FOP. They hired a company to raise funds for them.

I use to work in a phone room when I was 16. It is a scam and a police officer will never call you for donations. We called for the FOP, Police Athletic League (PAL), Police Benevolent Association(PBA) and the Florida Law Enforcement Olympics(FLEO). We were encouraged to sound like we were officers but if asked we had to say that we were not. If you agree to give them money you are put on a separate list(suckers). Then we would call you 6 months later and ask again! "It's that time of year Mr. Jones! Can we count on your support for the officers?"

Just hang up. If you want to give to any of these organizations make sure you do it directly.

the best thing is to tell them no and to stop calling. I had this problem with the fire fighters. They called every night for 5 weeks before we put a stop to it. I'm not kidding, every night.

Huh?

For White Male Cops???

You people are just making shit up now.

This place is really funny (sad) some times.

LOL

They also rally around white cops accused of beating black men.

What a bunch of crap here.

There's the wikipedia article itself: "A further concern is that in many jurisdictions the FOP has been traditionally viewed as primarily for white officers, problematic in this era of increasing diversity as well as racial controversies involving law enforcement."

Quick google gives this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032202525.html

and this

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2561/

and plenty of other examples.

Cincinnati is just one example of many.