Pittsburgh Bureau of Police
Months back I was scribblin while ponderin how anyone could ever be elected mayor of Pittsburgh without the Pittsburgh Police union’s and the Pittsburgh Firefighters’ and other city employees' support. This sort of backing caused Mayor Tom Murphy problems with the firemen years ago, when they accused him of reneging on a backroom deal with them. And recently Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has had his problems with the cops who’ve supported him, but thankfully, he’s getting out of politics.
I started to write a piece about how the aforementioned voting blocks (police being number one among them) have had an undemocratic control over Pittsburgh politics, but set the essay aside to do other work. Then the other day I saw a story about how Pittsburgh Police are contesting a Bill Peduto mayoral campaign ad that shows him walking with some actors dressed as cops.
The police called the ad “deceitful.”
For the record, I don’t support Peduto. This piece isn’t about him or Jack Wagner, whom I am leaning toward though he may not need my support, given that the cops are backing him. But it’s occurred to me again that for all the residents of Pittsburgh to be truly represented by their city government, the creation of another, viable political party must happen.
Why? Because to become mayor here (or to win re-election as mayor), a politician must be embraced by the local Fraternal Order of Police. So, a mayoral candidate’s mind is consumed with thoughts of police patronage and dreams of spending the fat donations from special interests like corporations, and thoughts of an average voter’s needs are gone once Mr. Mayor To Be descends from a stump speech. Unfortunately, those who protect and serve us also are self-serving, and their leaders believe it’s their right to make cash off-duty by dressing as cops while working in legitimate businesses,
like strip bars.
Well, as they say:
"
Na h-éisg bheaga a bheathuigheas na h-éisg mhóra."
(The little fish feed the big fish. -Irish proverb)
I really have nothing against strip bars and have visited a few. But when a strip club sues the city to get its off-duty Pittsburgh Police back working to keep order in the club, maybe the club has bigger problems than bad patrons. And maybe the city and its residents have a lot bigger problems than some bad cops and a pretentious know-nothing mayor who is so silly he goes on David Letterman and
naively tells the world the steel industry is gone from Pittsburgh.
That’s part of why we need another political party in Pittsburgh—and I am not suggesting we go Republican, since all you have to do is look at
Gov. Corbett sleeping with the fossil fuel industry to see that’s no answer. Under his leadership, the rights of the people to govern themselves have been forsaken in kow-towing to the interests of greedy, multinational corporations who claim that more drilling and more political contributions are always the answers.
I don’t like Old Boy Democratic Politics either, which is what we have now in the City Of Champions. That's why to really move Pittsburgh forward we need to create a new political party that is a stronger block of voters than the cops and firefighters combined.
Why, you ask again? If you have to ask this question, it’s a good bet you are employed by, contracted by, or close to someone employed by our city government. The government here in Pittsburgh sometimes seems dedicated to the proposition that all relatives of city employees are more equal than the rest of us, and thus deserve a paycheck if possible. That’s no formula for good government.
If we don’t upset this imbalance of power, you can count on more in-cahoots dealings between the mayor and the cops, as we’ve seen in the past with other mayors and with other police chiefs. We voters must get the message that we only get what we pay for. We non-police, non-firemen, unaffiliated Irish-American and unaffiliated Italian-American voters (and so many others) haven’t bought off the mayor via political block, as the Cops and Friends have, so we can’t really influence the mayor to address our needs. Or at least, we have little influence on him compared to Johnny Law.
But with the
Not Just Cops, Firemen, Irish and Italians Party (NJCFIIP), our voices could actually be heard. We could make government work for us, instead of just laboring to keep the city workers employed. Forget about this being a Democratic town and you being a union supporter, a registered Demmy and blah blah blah… Where’s that solidarity gotten the rest of us? As I’ve already said, it’s gotten us crappy government and conceited, foolish politicians.
But there is a silver lining: The one thing Mayor Lukey needed to stay boy king for life, which until a minute ago was a real possibility, was the support of the cops. And that connection took him out of the mayoral race.
I grew up in Bellevue, just outside Pittsburgh’s North Side. The place was full of transplanted Irish-American North Siders, some of whom would follow their kinsmen into the Pittsburgh cops, Allegheny County Sherriff’s office and other local government posts. (Full disclosure: I am part Irish.) There are a lot of good ones out there—both cops and city/county employees. And despite the need for closer control of the cops by council (rather than allowing the Police Chief to be a mayor-appointed position, for example), even such oversight cannot remove the problem of under-representation of the majority of Pittsburgh voters.
Simply put, cops' votes shouldn’t be worth so much more than yours and mine that they are
a privileged class of citizenry which effectively negates the voting power of those who are not in their government-affiliated special class. Such a system is bound to be full of crooked dealings, since it is really an oligarchy and not a democracy. The people in charge act privileged, because they are privileged, and in a way not intended by our Founding Fathers, who outlawed hereditary titles and the Nobility.
So in honor of Saint Patrick, patron saint of many of Pittsburgh’s boys in blue (who surely love freedom as much as you and I), let’s banish these crooked ways from our local government, just as Patrick banished Ireland’s snakes. Through the Not Just Cops, Firemen, Irish and Italians Party, we can make every Pittsburgher’s vote really count.
