Police say they won't picket convention

[Freddie Stubbs]

Give Kerry a lift after his gesture

By Rick Klein and Patrick Healy, Globe Staff | June 29, 2004

Boston's main police union abandoned yesterday their threat to picket at the site of next month's Democratic National Convention, handing Senator John F. Kerry a major victory on the day he honored the union's picket line by not making a speech before a US Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston.

Kerry's cancellation of the long-scheduled address was widely praised by union leaders, and one Kerry campaign official said yesterday that the move was made in part with the expectation that the union would respond by promising not to picket outside the FleetCenter during the convention.

"The senator . . . kept his eye on the big prize, the convention, in order to achieve a trade-off with the unions," said a Kerry campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The shift in the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association's picketing strategy would allow Kerry and thousands of convention delegates and members of the media to enter the FleetCenter unimpeded, despite the city's ongoing labor woes. But Kerry's cancellation drew sharp criticism from both Democratic and Republican mayors, who angrily accused the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of caving in to a local union that is making unreasonable demands.

more: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/articles/2004/06/29/police_say_they_wont_picket_convention/

[senseandsensibility]

1. I'm a big Kerry fan

but to keep my support, he had to honor that picket line. Now, to keep my support, that union had better live up to their deal with Kerry.:-)

[Freddie Stubbs]

2. Would you have supported him if the police union had picketed the

convention and Kerry had crossed the picket line for that?

[senseandsensibility]

3. That is a tough question

I honestly can't answer, but I'm leaning nonety percent towards not supporting him if he actually did that. In the final analysis, I would want to get rid of * so bad, that I might have to do something I wouldn't be proud of.