Thousands of police throng city
FBI Director Robert Mueller tells the officers that cooperation among law-enforcement agencies is key to fighting terrorism.
08/05/2003
BY SCOTT MacKAY
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- With pomp and politics, sadness and celebration,
the nation's largest police officers association opened its convention
yesterday, with FBI Director Robert Mueller and U.S. Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao bringing a strong Bush administration presence to the
biggest convention Rhode Island's largest city has ever hosted.
More than 2,000 Fraternal Order of Police delegates thronged the Rhode
Island Convention Center for a meeting that continues through Thursday
and is expected to bring as many as 10,000 people to Providence.
The FOP, with 310,000 members, is the nation's largest police union. It
was the only significant labor organization to support then-Texas Gov.
George W. Bush's Republican presidential campaign in 2000, when most of
organized labor sided with Democrat Al Gore.
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Master Officer W.L. "Bubba" Sayers, right, of the College Station, Texas, Police Department, and his wife, Jane, await the start of last nights WaterFire in Waterplace Park.
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Yesterday, the Bush adminitration showed its respect, sending two of its
top players to a convention in the state where Gore scored his biggest
percentage win (62 percent) in 2000.
Neither Chao nor Mueller broke any new ground, but both were very well
received by the delegates, who represent police from all 50 states and
several foreign countries.
FBI Director Mueller told delegates that terrorist threats against the
United States since Sept. 11, 2001, have created a "new era" in the
relationship between the FBI and local law enforcement.
Muller said that the future of law enforcement in a high-tech world
filled with cyber criminals and terrorists is cooperation among
law-enforcement agencies. He called for abolishing the turf battles that
have sometimes soured relations among state, local and federal agencies.
"Piece by piece, state, local and federal law enforcement have become
more integrated and more interdependent," Mueller said.
The FBI's main challenges today, he said, are in counterterrorism and in
gathering and publicizing intelligence. He credited his agents with
successfully snaring terror cells in Portland, Ore., Buffalo and
Detroit, and said the FBI's success now depends on how well it works
with other police agencies.
"Only by developing these relationships will we be successful against
these threats," he said.
There were vivid reminders that police work is never easy and that
enforcing society's laws sometimes ends in the ultimate sacrifice.
As bagpipes played the Scottish hymn "Amazing Grace," spouses of
officers who had died in the line of duty walked to the front of the
cavernous assembly hall, each carrying a white rose. It wasn't an easy
walk; tears welled in many an eye.
The state's political hierarchy was out in force, led by Governor
Carcieri, who welcomed the police to Rhode Island and urged delegates to
visit the state's attractions. Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch, House Speaker
William Murphy, D-West Warwick, Secretary of State Matthew Brown,
Providence City Council President John Lombardi, Warwick Mayor Scott
Avedisian and Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams
all attended.
Conspicuous by his absence was Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who was
on a trade mission to the Dominican Republic, according to city police
Chief Dean Esserman. Cicilline did appear briefly via a video that was
somewhat difficult to hear in the big room.
Labor Secretary Chao sought to defuse for the FOP what has become a
contentious issue between the Bush administration and labor unions: the
Labor Department's proposal to drastically change overtime pay rules
that unions assert would result in major overtime pay cuts to
professional employees.
The AFL-CIO and most major unions have denounced the proposed change,
and the issue has found its way into presidential politics. In Iowa
yesterday, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, a Democratic
presidential aspirant, launched an Internet-based petition drive to
oppose the proposed limits on overtime pay.
Kerry said up to 8 million workers would lose overtime, including police
officers and firefighters who are the first to respond in emergencies.
Unlike other unions, the FOP has been working behind-the-scenes with the
Bush administration to ensure that the proposal is amended to protect
law-enforcement personnel from overtime cuts, said Jim Pasco, executive
director of the FOP.
"We are very confident we are going to be able to resolve these issues,"
Pasco said.
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From left, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Bradley Buckles, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Jim Pasco, FOP executive director, wait for Mueller to be introduced.
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Chao pledged to listen "very carefully" to the FOP's concerns before the
final rules are put into place.
The FOP is more conservative than many labor organizations because of
its law-enforcement membership and the fact that it is not a
collective-bargaining agent in areas of the country where public safety
employees are not permitted union bargaining rights.
Neither Chao nor Mueller took reporters' questions.
Chao plugged the Bush foreign policies, especially the Iraq war.
"I want you to be assured that this administration will do all in its
power . . . to bring the vestiges of Saddam Hussein's regime to final
justice," said Chao, to cheers from the mostly male audience.
Chao also honored FOP past national President Steve Young with a
posthumous award. With Young's widow, Denise, in the audience, Chao
announced that Young, who died in January, would be inducted into the
U.S. Department of Labor's Labor Hall of Fame next month and that the
RISE (Resources and Investments in Spousal Employment) scholarship will
be re-named the Steve Young Memorial Scholarship program.
The RISE scholarship program was created in 2001. The $2-million program
helps families of law-enforcement officers who die in the line of duty
get education and training. The money comes from the Department of Labor
and goes to the National FOP Foundation, to pay for education and job
training, such as community college certification courses.
Mueller also praised Jeff Postell, 22, the unassuming, small-town North
Carolina police officer who, in May, arrested Eric Rudolph, the alleged
bomber in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Postell was working the overnight shift in the rural North Carolina city
of Murphy when he apprehended Rudolph near a supermarket dumpster.
"To be blunt, we [the FBI] looked for him for years, and Jeff Postell
found him," Mueller said.
Said Postell, "I'm very honored. I'm very happy to be here."
With reports from Associated Press
