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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

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  • Joe

    Did I click on The Agitator/Radley Balko’s page by mistake?

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  • TJ

    You should copy a link of this article and send it to Catherine Brockman, she is the executive director of the FOP in ohio and deserves to know what her employees are doing

    cbrockman@fopohio.org

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dell-Hill/1360026881 Dell Hill

    You talk about skating on thin ice! If an American citizen can’t outwardly espouse a difference of opinion without enduring the wrath of some two-bit attorney issuing vendettas, we’re in for at least a decade of serious trouble. The reaction (if any) from those he claims to represent will be interesting.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1385852725 Richard Mcenroe

    Telling a Republican he’s lost the civil servant vote is like telling an Israeli he lost the felafel concession in Damascus. It’s perhaps not the devastating shock you think it is.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    There will be blood.

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

    Got a tail light out Frankie-boy? Here’s your ticket. Looks like your headlight’s got a crack in it…here’s your ticket. What’s that on your breath? Maybe you oughtta step outta the car and do some hand-stands for me, Frankie-boy. Hey Frankie! Is that a doobie in your ashtray? We gotta guy in the lock-up that’s gonna love you, Frankie. This is Ohio, Frankie…

    As an Ohio resident I think Mr. LaRose may have “interesting” days ahead.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder how many “N-Words” there are. We somehow need to get the left to commit to a finite number lest it get to the point that there are so many words in the English language that we can’t say that we have to start speaking Arabic or something……….oh, never mind I figured it out.

  • Anonymous

    And if the Ohio police start pulling that kind of harassment, the pushback is going to be nothing short of ferocious.

  • Anonymous

    Two standards, remember?

  • Anonymous

    Somebody ought to remind this turkey that he’s confirming the stereotype of cops as “gang members with badges”. When juries start refusing to convict people subjected to this kind of harassment who respond with violence, maybe the message will arrive.

  • Anonymous

    This is already happening. Google up the history of the “pain relief activist” who has been harassed into jail by “contempt of court citations”. For that matter, what do you think that the ethics complaints against Palin were. She could stay and be bankrupted defending against unfounded allegations (her defense had to use her own private funds), or resign.

    Jerry Pournelle refers to this as “Anarcho-Tyranny”: millions of laws that no one can avoid violating for the tyranny, and arbitrary enforcement against those who annoy the government as the anarchy.

  • Mht

    “Funny thing about cops, they hold grudges,” – I think that statement would have a much more sinister connotation to the Afro-American community than some distorted interpretation of the words “Union Thugs” .

  • Anonymous

    Amen.

  • Anonymous

    Voters hold grudges, too. Might be time to start looking at whether we really need S.W.A.T. teams. Sure would save a hell of a lot of money if we were to de-fund them…

  • http://wyblog.us/blog Chris Wysocki

    He ain’t kidding about that grudge thing. Getting involved in small town politics has really shown me just how much sway the police hold over everybody. If the mayor and council don’t give them everything they want when they want it the whispers of “cop hater” begin to circulate. A councilman was forced to resign because he dared to question why certain officers never wrote any traffic tickets. The police made things very clear – everyone’s life would be miserable as hell unless this guy was silenced.

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  • http://twitter.com/OrinocoPat Pat Wilson

    Piotrowski’s posturing confirms allegations of thuggery among public sector unions.

  • http://twitter.com/OrinocoPat Pat Wilson

    Piotrowski’s posturing confirms allegations of thuggery among public sector unions.

  • http://twitter.com/OrinocoPat Pat Wilson

    Piotrowski’s posturing confirms allegations of thuggery among public sector unions.

  • Born_a_vol

    Funny, another Ohio Democrat had a problem the other day calling a black conservative “buckwheat.” Seems, at best, they just don’t understand how the Internet works. More likely, they’re just as stupid, bigoted and thuggish as they sound.

  • Anonymous

    Funny thing about legislators, they can pass laws revoking the privilege of the police to carry guns.

    And should, after this. Make a Horrible Example.

  • Diggs

    The problem is not that police hold grudges, which they do. The problem is that they hold badges and grudges.

  • Geekwitha45

    Anybody can hold a grudge.

    It takes a badge to hold a grudge under the color of law.

  • triptyx

    Good luck finding someone to prosecute a violation under that Code. :P The corruption, top to bottom, of our law enforcement and “justice” apparatus is complete.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/V7LGTBIAONDXFOC4A7LRH6LD7U George

    It amazes me that bozos like this lawyer just don’t seem to get it. Its these threats and acts of intimidation that continue to turn off average amercians like myself. I am not a cop, a union activist just a small business owner in America. What I see is how the unions got the power they have in the first place by threatening those who did not play ball and lavishly paying off those who did. That was necessary 50 years ago. Not so much anymore but the unions can’t afford to lose power since it would mean the end of the gravy train for so many.

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    Americans don’t like bullies. Never have. Never will. Even when the public has revered thugs and criminals it’s always been with the notion that the other side was too big for its britches and needed to be taken down a peg.

    Ohio police unions don’t look like an underdog. They don’t sound like an underdog and they don’t act like an underdog. You can’t claim to be Fighting the Man when you are The Man.

  • Gerubby

    waah?!?! Your synopsis of Senator LaRose failed to mention he was endorsed by the police union and several other unions, up until the day of the vote he was against it and he dealt a blow to his fellow veterans, many of whom are police and firefighters.

    Sort of sad to see how quickly you guys jump all over the police, who are typically strong supporters of conservatives. This guy’s comments are dumb, he is not a police officer as much as some of you appear to want to bash cops.

  • Anonymous

    The current crisis has been devastating for the police unions as the cops fail to enforce the law in Madison and now threaten lawmakers who vote against them in Ohio. The police unions were excluded from Walker’s bill. That won’t happen again, I suspect.

  • http://twitter.com/AmPowerBlog Donald Douglas

    Hey, McCain, here’s video at the link, of Ohio union thugs screaming and yelling at the statehouse yesterday, as the bill passed: ‘Focus on Ohio as GOP Advances Curbs on Public Unions’.

  • Anonymous

    The best revenge is for the Senator to file a bar complaint against Piotrowski, preferably to have him disciplined.

  • Bg

    Frank, are you joking to show just what assholes cops can be? Or are you serious? Your intent is unclear. r/Bedrock Guy

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

    …and they have long memories.

  • Anonymous

    Can Union Thug lawyers threaten decorated veterans who are doing their jobs?

    Yes we can!

    Just another face of Hope&Change.

  • edh

    Isn’t the history of labor “union thugs,” among other things, the exclusion of black workers?

  • http://kingshamus.wordpress.com/ KingShamus

    Piotroski: “Nice state. Would be a shame if anything bad happened to it.”

    We wouldn’t put up with that elsewhere in our lives, but Piotroski’s little threat is supposed to be kosher?

    Hmmm.

  • http://ak4mc.us/2c/2011/ McGehee

    If Ohio cops hold their public duty higher than their fealty to the union bosses that pay “Sarge” Piotrowski’s salary, they will demand Piotrowski be fired.

    What union thugs like “Sarge” don’t want to understand is THE MONEY IS RUNNING OUT. LaRose gets it, and for this he gets threatened by this gomer? To hell with Piotrowski and anyone who denfends him.

  • Anonymous

    It’s not for me to apologize for others’ comments, but I was disappointed to see that a few comments in this thread have gone beyond criticism of public sector unionization, including support for Ohio S.B. 5, to making blanket statements about cops.

    In the long-term, public sector unionization is a bad deal for everyone, even if it benefits certain parties in the short-term, including those who put their lives on the line in the interest of public safety.

    Some more strident right-wing libertarians, who do not necessarily identify as “conservatives,” can be quite ambivalent about police, and sometimes thier anti-statism will hit collateral targets. At the same time, other persons who claim to be “conservatives” only do so insomuch as the association (and/or label) benefits their interest-group agendas.

  • Anonymous

    PGlenn, despite what they say about anecdotes not being evidence, each anecdote is actually a data point. Accumulate enough of them and they become evidence. And there is plenty of evidence of cops acting like another gang of thugs, or tolerating those who do.

  • Anonymous

    “the police, who are typically strong supporters of conservatives.”

    After some of the statements from representatives of Police Unions and the refusals to do their duty in Wisconsin, I find the alleged “conservatism” of police officers suspect. Not liberal, is not the same as conservative.

  • Anonymous

    Really?? How much money did the Police Unions give to Republicans over Democrats?? In California in the last election cycle the public safety Unions gave ZERO dollars to Republicans, and MILLIONS to the Democrats who run the State and with whom they “bargain” for their benefits. Individual members may be conservative but as a BLOCK they support radical leftists.

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

    Sticking up for the taxpayers is a blow against veterans? Give me a break. Not one in a hundred vets is a cop or firefighter, but just about every single one them IS a taxpayer. Get your head on straight.

  • Sarge

    Funny thing about Citizens: they have a damn low tolerance for union thugs abusing their authority to pursue a grudge.

  • Anonymous

    Mikey Numbnuts Piotroski is representative of arrogant union lawyers not police officers in the FOP. I’ve always admired the professionalism of most Police Officers.

    “Numbnuts”, you’ve done a disservice to the professionals you represent. Don’t ever threaten a citizen again with retaliation by police officers.

    Fire this jerk!

  • Anonymous

    As you know, it’s complicated. Being a supporter of “conservatives” probably means different things to different commenters at this blog site, let alone the general public, which includes mostly people with limited interest in political thought, policy matters, etc. With all due respect to the police in general, most police officers (or any other Americans for that matter) wouldn’t have a sophisticated understanding of the various shades of “conservatism” in American politics.

    It’s much easier to identify a clear-cut conflict – as opposed to mere confusion and ignorance – between (right-wing) libertarian political philosophy and public-sector unionization (including police unions).

  • Sarge

    Not when you look at the Public Employee unions, it’s not. Confluence of privileged hiring status vis-a-vis quotas, and union protectionism, is what gave you the DMV.

  • Anonymous

    Martial law in Columbus only. Suspend the police powers of all officers in the zone. Attorney General gets a TRO against Michael Sarge Piotrowski, followed by possible prosecution and disbarment. Don’t screw around with the lives of the legislators.

  • Buzz

    “When Republicans talk about ‘Union Thugs’ they may as well be calling people the n-word.”
    The hell it is. I worked in Mansfield back when the steelworkers got themselves locked out at the plant. My job, which I had before, during and after the lockout, was to maintain the computers at the plant. A job that none of the steelworkers did. I had my tires punctured by rock jacks, I lost a windshield, the steelworkers picketed the managements children at their bus stop, so that guy can kiss my ass. Union thugs is absolutely the correct terminology.

  • Anonymous

    “As you know, it’s complicated.”

    Is it? One may read that Police Officers are often conservative. I’m asking really in what way. As I wrote above I’ll stipulate that they are not liberals.
    They are exposed to and protect us from the worst elements in our society. They are required to respect the rights of people who clearly don’t deserve them but are rightly entitled to them. It would take a lot of “Hopium” to remain a liberal under those circumstances. But are they conservatives? While there are different “types” of “Conservatives” commenting here there are some conservative “absolutes”. Where do most Police organizations come down on the 2nd amendment? search and seizure? right to assemble? While I’m sure that many individual officers are more conservative than say a teacher I doubt that their organizations particularly union organizations are. Police officers swear to uphold the Constitution as well as uphold the law. I wonder how often they think about the difference.

  • Wylee Coyote

    I’m sorry, I support the efforts to cut the budget and think that police unions have gone too far in politicizing policing, but this is ridiculous.

    It’s not even remotely possible that Piotrowski meant “hold a grudge” at the ballot box? When he says in his very next message that he WASN’T threatening violence?

    How is this any different than the lefties who whined about Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs map”?

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