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