BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
by Det. Gerry Sanfilippo, Vice-President
This phrase has been used as metaphor to describe a group of cruel and brutal individuals who attempt to storm the gates of a Roman city. A city ostensibly composed of educated, cultured and honorable people.
As a police officer for the past twenty-five years I have often thought of myself and fellow officers as “keepers of the gate.” Those individuals who were entrusted by the city fathers to keep the peace. And so we have fought off: thugs, thieves, vicious gangs, sexual predators, drug dealers and murderers; for if allowed to flourish they would have destroyed the city behind the gate.
Now I see a different group of barbarians though no less cruel and brutal. These barbarians are the callous and disingenuous politicians and hypocritical news media who seek to destroy. What they seek to destroy is law enforcement as a whole. And how do they seek to destroy us? Financially that’s how.
First city officials tried to blackmail us into accepting a wage freeze. A wage freeze that would have negated the last and highest raise of our contract. Furthermore a wage freeze that as more time passes will clearly be shown to have been totally unnecessary.
Next state politicians seek to destroy the Quinn Bill, an educational benefit that was bargained for in good faith. Irrespective of the state’s financial outlook can the media or anyone else for that matter argue that a more educated police officer is not a better police officer?
A recent Boston Globe editorial gloated in the fact of a 75% Quinn Bill reduction in cost to the state. The same Boston Globe that is on the brink of bankruptcy due to financial mismanagement.
Law enforcement is no longer a blue collar profession. Gone are the days when a recruit went four weeks to some non-certified police academy then was given a gun, night stick and a badge and was put on the street. The myriad of issues facing today’s police is astounding! We are expected to be: social worker, psychologist, parent, teacher, clergyman, and do it all without error. And with a smile on our face!
But this new breed of barbarians hates the fact that we aspire to the same things that they do. Specifically, to live in nice homes in safe neighborhoods, to properly clothe and feed our families and to give our children the best education we can afford. After all doesn’t each generation strive to give the next generation better financial and educational opportunities?These economic benefits were earned and negotiated at a bargaining table resulting in a contract. That’s right, a contract; a binding agreement between two parties. Be assured that this union will not shrink from its’ responsibility nor cower in the face of our adversaries whoever and wherever they may be.
As Caesar said as he crossed the Rubicon, “The die is cast.”
