I read on the Advocate's 411 blog that SPD chose Glenn Beck to speak at their Officer of the Year ceremony. What's even more absurd is their stated reason why. Keep reading.
I don't know much about Glenn Beck, but here's what Wikipedia says:
In response to the president's remarks on the Henry Louis Gates controversy, Beck argued that President Barack Obama has repeatedly shown "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture," saying "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."
Here's what the SPD has to say about why they chose him as a speaker:
Sgt. Joseph Kennedy, president of the Stamford Police Association, said the choice of Beck as a keynote speaker makes the awards ceremony appeal to a broader base of people, and also his membership.
“Most police officers are conservative by nature,” Kennedy said. “I can’t say everyone is a Republican but we seem to have more conservative views when it comes to global issues.”
“We know from people we’ve spoken to and from hearing Beck in the past, he has a good appreciation for law enforcement,” Kennedy said.
THAT MAKES NO SENSE. Police are civil servants, just like teachers. I keep my political views out of the classroom (my students don't have the choice to avoid me), and my police should keep their political views out of my face (I don't have the choice to pick and choose who protects me and my fellow Stamfordites). When you have chosen, like teachers and police officers have, to serve a community, you also give up a little bit of how much of your politics you can express. That's because to do your job well, you have to have the full respect of the community, and to do that, you need to not publicly endorse people who many people find terribly offensive.
I believe the police have a responsibility to portray themselves as fair-minded, caring people. Having Beck as a speaker suggests that he's their role model, and I prefer to think my police aspire to a higher model of balanced thinking- don't they need that to make good decisions in their daily task of protecting us? I hope the SPD cares enough about its reputation enough to cancel this guy's speaking engagement.
I'm gonna have to give this whole situation a big Stamford Talk "DUH."
Click read more to see excerpts of Advocate readers’ comments that prove that the SPD’s choice of speaker offends the community:
geez with all the problems in the Stamford Police Department–A cop slugging a woman in the face, another showing photos of his genitals and not too long ago another buying fenced goods perhaps the SPA would find someone less controversial and dare i say progressive. The recent problems are a sign of arrogance
I served the City of Stamford for 32 years as a police officer and lived and raised my family in this beautiful City my children attended and graduated from Stamford Public Schools and very proud of it….not in my wildest dreams would I be a part to honoring the officer of the year by bringing a racist, anti-social bigot individual as guest speaker. The Stamford Police Association is sending the multicultural community of Stamford the WRONG message….but, then again what else is new. Shame on you SPA.
No matter how you slice it, this does not make the STP look good. They are a professional organization. They should not be promoting a speaker who is perceived as a divisive political demagogue by a significant percent of the population that they serve. It is bad community relations, and makes them look very unprofessional. It is an uneeded public distraction to any good work they do.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Stamford Police Publicly Endorse Glenn Beck: I Wish I Were Joking
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12 comments:
Thanks for this post. I agree 100%!
Beth
Just because Beck is a bigot, a racist, supports known Nazis and stands against just about everything i believe, does not mean i do not like him...
Just kidding.
Not to split hairs, but Beck was invited by the Stamford Police Association, not the Police Department. The Assocation is a private fraternal organization of current and retired police officers. Their political views are not equivalent to a political endorsement by the city's Police Department.
That the SPA has political views is really no different than a teacher's union having political views. Neither speaks for their employers or the taxpayers.
Whether or not you like Glenn Beck, the Association certainly has a right to their political persuasion.
YIKES!! That's some scary stuff.
I really enjoyed Whitemist's comment.
I hate to laugh, but some things are just too crazy to not laugh at.
Anonymous, thanks for that info and for making the difference clear! The SPA booking Glenn Beck is slightly more ok than the SPD booking him but I am bummed to see someone divisive be so admired be people who police our streets. I do think people can like someone who acts looney but still not be looney themselves, so I suppose i can give SPA the benefit of the doubt. I still think it makes them look bad.
Police are politically conservative...nothing new here. I, for one, would rather that those working to serve and protect err on the side of caution instead of trust. Lucky for us all that is the case.
Regarding the comment above:
I'm not really sure what being politically conservative has to do with being a good law enforcement officer.
Hey Stamford Talk,
Maybe you as a teacher leave your politics out of the classroom, but most teachers are radically liberal and do express their views in the classroom, including teachers across the country that teach their kids songs that praise Obama. How is that any different? No one at the SPA is calling Beck a "saivor" like the liberals call Obama (although i think most people now realize he may be the worst president in history.
It’s obvious that none of you take the time to research your facts! 95% of what Glenn Beck says is taken out of context by Liberal Democrats trying to deface him. This is a common practice against anyone that speaks out against our failing President. If your just going to read quotes in the news and not spend at least an hour to watch his show then your nothing more then a lemming jumping off a cliff..
I don’t agree with everything he says but he is in no way a racist! Beck continually quotes the late Dr Martin Luther King in a positive way, so how you can call him a racist is deplorable.
Don't you need some proof to actually call Beck a racist? That is a pretty steep claim.
It is ironic that it seems the main case for calling Beck racist is that he called Obama a racist.
This is irony.
You are no more racist than Beck is, for having a white child.
Further, to make hay about the politics of a police organization, mostly retired, is pretty rich. Especially when you compared them to teachers, probably the most politicized group in America. For every single incident of police politics I've seen in America, I've see 99 overt political stands from teachers.
Let's make a deal. Have the teachers stop making political hay out of educating our kids and I'm sure the retired cops will forgo their protected right to speech.
Deal?
It is a mistake to compare the fraternal police organization with teachers unions. Unions negotiate directly with the state and represent the teachers in official state matters. There is a huge difference.
Also, for the other poster, yes, conservative cops are better than liberal cops. This opinion is the consensus. Why else to liberals pretend to be conservatives and tough on crime during elections?
Americans need to wake up the fact that Beck is simply another opinion pushing charlatan who is a product of mormon cult theology and he mixes this with his personal make up as a dry alcoholic. On his radio show and Fox Network program he consistent demonstrates all the unstable behaviors of a dry alcoholic which include grandiosity, judgmentalism, intolerance, impulsivity, ADD and indecisiveness. Alongside that reality, Glenn Beck does not possess a single ounce of journalistic integrity, has no college degree, has no qualifications and he is definitely not a true conservative. But then, what can anyone expect from someone who can't find anything filthier than their own personal reflection. Since people like Beck cannot survive on the basis of any personal merits, they survive by putting others down with lies and half truths in order to feel good about themselves. The truth about Beck is that he a dry mormon alcoholic who never got the counseling required for alcoholics. To further complicate things and confuse people, Beck flippantly throws around Christian terms like "God", "Jesus","Holy Spirit" as well as voices of other so called "Spirit Powers" on his radio talk show. Beck is a mormon in active standing with the mormon church and is not a Christian. Mormonism teaches many gods, that the god of the earth was once a man who attained godhood status, there is no trinity, the cross of Christ means nothing and that Jesus Christ and Satan were brothers. Because Beck does not possess a single ounce of journalistic integrity, he is the perfect abortion poster child for Fox Network. The people who love what Beck says are no different than the impressionable sheep who loved every speech made by Adolph Hitler in his early years when he brought Germany into an era of economic prosperity These same sheep also blindly followed Hitler into one of the darkest chapters of world history. Beck and the Fox Network both cater to the same lowest common denominator of demagoguery. Beck would not know the first thing about God as he is a mormon. Someone should ask him which of the many mormon gods he kept talking about during his argument with himself on Saturday on the square in DC. Like a typical dry alcoholic, Beck even lied on national television when he spoke about holding a document signed by George Washington. That event never took Place. Unfortunately, people who love being led around by the nose do not realize that Beck is talking about a different god than that of Christianity, Judaism or Islam and that he has been a product of mormonism cultism from the day he started doing a radio talk show as an opinion pusher. You don't have to have a degree in psychology to see that he exhibits all the signs of a dry alcoholic. The only reason this unstable impressionable idiot fell into mormonism was because the woman he wanted to have sex with would not do so unless they got first got married and from that point, they joined the mormon cult. Glenn Beck is as big a charlatan as Josephs Smith or that 5th grade graduate (Charles T Russell) who started the Jehovah's Witness cult. This is Glenn Beck in a very accurate & concise nutshell. Considering the fact that Becks personal views are extreme Marxist Libertarian, his form of patriotism is false and he is a person who has no real substance or depth. It will not surprise many of use when Beck’s next big thing is to come out of the closet and announce his homosexuality to the nation. Simply put…he is just another political neocon.
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