The Other McCain

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Lawyer for Ohio Police Union Tells Republican State Senator: ‘Funny Thing About Cops, They Hold Grudges’

Posted on | March 3, 2011 | 73 Comments

Ohio’s state Senate yesterday passed S.B. 5, which would limit the power of government employee unions. Among those voting for the measure was state Sen. Frank LaRose, a 31-year-old freshman Republican from Akron. After the passage of S.B. 5, LaRose’s Facebook page filled up with comments, including one from Michael Sarge Piotrowski who — as Melissa Clouthier explains at Red State — is a lawyer representing the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.

“Funny thing about cops, they hold grudges,” Piotroski wrote on LaRose’s page.

After being criticized by LaRose’s supporters — including College Republican activists Joe Manno, Nick Willcox and John Eakin — Piotrowski tried to walk back his comment, while simultaneously lashing out at Republicans.

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Piotrowski wrote in a reply to Willcox. “When Republicans talk about ‘Union Thugs’ they may as well be calling people the n-word.”



Sources in Ohio say they expect LaRose to make a statement about the incident later today.

UPDATE: Linked by Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress. Some background from my Ohio sources: LaRose is a former sergeant in the Army Green Berets, an Iraq War veteran and “just the nicest guy in the world.” He worked closely with College Republicans at Akron University during his 2010 campaign against Democrat Frank Comunale for an open seat in District 27. LaRose won in a 57-43% landslide and perhaps this campaign ad will give you a hint why:

LaRose is obviously a very appealing young face, perhaps a rising star in the Ohio GOP, which came back strongly in last year’s midterm elections after back-to-back drubbings in the 2006 and 2008 cycles.

UPDATE II: Professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection sees this as part of “a disturbing pattern in which the distinction between the police and the police unions becomes blurred.”

Welcome, Instapundit readers! Also, now a Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE III: “Why I Left Ohio.” I’m still waiting on a statement from Sen. LaRose, and have requested a statement from the Ohio FOP.

UPDATE IV: Linked by The Lonely Conservative — thanks! — and by American Power, which provides this video of angry union activists creating a disturbance in the Ohio state capitol building after the Senate voted Wednesday:

You can hear the chant of “Shame! Shame!” The vote in the state Senate was 17-16 in favor of S.B. 5, with six GOP senators voting “no.” The bill is expected to pass the state House, where Republicans hold a 54-40 majority.

Still waiting on an expected statement from Sen. LaRose’s office. No comment yet from the Ohio FOP.

UPDATE V: Sen. LaRose issues statement saying it is “intolerable and unproductive to resort to mean-spirited personal attacks and senseless threats.”

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Category: Ohio, Republicans, Unions

Comments

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  • Pingback: In Ohio, Police Union Lawyer Tells Lawmaker ‘Cops Hold Grudges’ | The Lonely Conservative

  • Anonymous

    You make several good points. The police, as a professional body (or political segment) are probably not – on average – particularly conservative, at least not in reference to how we’d understand conservatism. Again, as a professional group, economists, business entrepreneurs, military officers would be more conservative than police officers, but then lawyers, teachers, etc. would tend to be more liberal/progressive. Moreover, their profession will tend to align them with forces that are in opposition to political conservatism/libertarianism/classical liberalism.

    That doesn’t stop many (moderately informed) police officers from thinking of themselves as “conservatives,” because maybe they think it relates more to lifestyle, social attitudes, personal spending habits, tastes in clothing, and whatnot. They then get confused when a conservative politician actually takes a (philosophically) conservative position (I know, as rare as that is) which they dislike and don’t understand.

  • Btaylo104

    What is this “n-word” of which the gentleman speaks? I thought after yesterdays Supreme Court decision that all words were back into accepted usage.

  • Joe

    Frank was the deciding vote in the matter as well. They are chanting at the end of the video “shame on Frank, Shame on Frank” His Facebook page is the target of a vicious attack from the unions

  • Anonymous

    “It’s not even remotely possible that Piotrowski meant “hold a grudge” at the ballot box? ”

    And your point is?

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  • Ahsrocketmama

    I used to give to the FOP. . . Never again. Public sector unions are a cross between Tony Saprano and Karl Marx.

  • Anonymous

    A little history of the labor “movement” is a history of applied thuggery.

  • Anonymous

    In a case like that, you no longer have a police department. You have a gang wearing the colors of a police department.

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  • Bandit

    Incredibly this person still has a job today

  • Arthur

    The harassment Frank describes has been going on for at least 80 years…are the police and prosecutors more powerful today than 80 years ago? We all know the answer to that question! Where exactly is that “pushback” you speak of?

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  • YeaSayer

    Cops hold grudges? No way. I had no idea. Is it also true that the UK is a breeding ground for a**hole celebrities and other rich folks looking to shut down freedom of speech and press?: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2011/02/28/united-kingdom-legal-reform-may-soon-put-an-end-to-libel-tourism/

    I guess so…

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  • Anonymous

    This Frank LaRose p*o*s sounds to me like a:

    J.A.U.L. (pronounced “jowl”): Just Another Unhinged Leftie.

    d(^_^)b
    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_P7K7NCEIB2EWYLSLUOX6D3XN6E frank

    BG – Cops aren’t bigger a$$holes than anyone else…they just have guns and badges.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_P7K7NCEIB2EWYLSLUOX6D3XN6E frank

    libertyatstake – I guess you’re the product of the public education system in Ohio…am I correct?

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