Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: William K. Rashbaum MANY TV STATIONS REJECT POLICE UNION AD With a week of negotiations left before its contract with the city expires, the police union is stepping up its campaign for higher wages with a television advertisement depicting a fallen, bleeding officer that some stations have rejected as too graphic. A similarly explicit advertising campaign for subway cars initially was rejected, but the union toned down the image, removing a puddle of blood beside the officer, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority might accept the ads, union officials said. The 30-second television advertisement, a montage of images that the union says is meant to convey "what cops have to put up with," includes videotape of unruly crowds at the funeral of Patrick M. Dorismond, an unarmed man killed by narcotics officers in March. It ends with the sound of a gunshot and a staged scene of an officer lying on a sidewalk next to a patrol car's open door and a pool of blood. The advertisement is a departure from typical labor union ads, which glorify the work of union members. In the ad by the police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the union's president, Patrick J. Lynch, declares: "Most people wouldn't take this job for a million bucks. A New York City police officer does it for a helluva lot less." The television ads are scheduled to be shown starting Monday on New York 1 and UPN's New York affiliate, WWOR, Channel 9, but they have been rejected by most other local stations, including WABC, WCBS, WNBC, WPIX and MSG, a local cable channel that focuses on sporting events, the union said. Most of the stations cited the graphic image of the bleeding officer, said Joseph Mancini, a union spokesman who also produced the ads. Earlier versions of the advertisement also included videotape of the Rev. Al Sharpton, a frequent critic of the police, at a protest after the acquittal of four officers in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, and some stations had cited the juxtaposition of Mr. Sharpton and the image of the officer in turning down the ad, Mr. Mancini said. Some of the stations have said that they might accept a less explicit ad, without the blood, and with some other modifications, and Mr. Mancini said yesterday he was working on several versions. A spokeswoman for WNBC said the station had relayed its concerns about the commercial to the union but had not heard back. The other television stations that the union said had declined to run the advertisement did not return calls seeking comment or had no comment. Several employees at TDI Incorporated, the company that reviews advertisements for placement in the subway, said yesterday that no one was available to discuss its dealings with the police union. While the advertisements do not directly address the salary issue, they are all about money, union officials said. The union has long complained that Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has failed to give officers a meaningful raise, despite record declines in reported crime, which the union says were won largely through the efforts of its members. In their current five-year contract, which expires on July 31, the union's 27,000 members received no increase for the first two years, and then 3 percent for two years and 6 percent for the final year. The union presented their demands to the city's Office of Collective Bargaining in May, and the city responded on Wednesday. Mr. Lynch, the union president, said more talks with the city were likely to be scheduled for next week, and he said he was confident that an agreement could be reached. "At this point, of course, the city is crying poverty, and it's their job to do that," he said. But noting a large surplus in the city budget, he added, "That money is in the city's coffers because of work New York City police officers did making this a safer city." All the officers are asking is their fair share, he said. He said the advertisements were designed to show the public what officers face in what he called an "anti-police atmosphere." "What we're doing is trying to put a face on a New York City cop and get the public to understand the difficulties that cops face every day and the reality that death is involved in this job, that police officers take that risk and new police officers take that risk for $350 a week" in take-home pay, Mr. Lynch said. Terrence Moran, a professor who teaches the history and sociology of propaganda at New York University, called the images "very, very vivid and very graphic," and said the reluctance of some stations to run the ads was a testament to their power. "What they have done is taken what is largely an economic issue, an issue about money, and made it tremendously emotional," he said. He also noted that, aside from the widely publicized death this week of a police officer in a high-speed chase, most recent news articles about the police had focused on officers shooting at suspects, rather than the other way around. "This would also seem designed to take some pressure off the police because they are doing most of the shooting," he said. "And what it does is try to get to that emotional loyalty of the citizen so that they won't be outraged by whatever raise they do get." Union officials said the advertisements were also meant to show the rank and file that the leadership was working for them. The ads follow recent radio and newspaper advertisements, and Mr. Mancini said the union expected to spend about $800,000 for all of the ads. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk