Can We Do This?

Obviously, the point people on something like this should be the FOP, but would they actually do something similar?

• Police officers in Bay City, Mich., are being called domestic terrorists after renting billboard space to trumpet that the layoffs of five police officers in the town could lead to more shootings, stabbings, robberies and beatings. The police say they paid for the two billboards that went up last week to bring attention to the impasse in negotiations between its union and city officials, who are seeking a 10.8 percent reduction in labor costs from eight unions to tackle a $1.66 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Depending on whom you believe, the Department is down anywhere from 700 to 2,200 officers as a de facto hiring freeze over the past two-plus years combined with an uninterrupted stream of retirements has reduced manpower levels to unprecedented lows. We also have a hated leader, near constant backlogs of radio jobs, a shooting rate that keeps climbing (despite protestations from the political end of theings) tied to a homicide rate that rivals war zones while the anemic clearance rate cannot find a floor to rest on.

A couple of billboards, especially on the roads leading in from the airports, with messages to the effect of "We cannot guarantee your safety while visiting Daley's Chicago" or similar wording would drive Daley's already pathetic poll numbers into the ground.

We realize there is no contract under negotiation at the moment and the FOP has been historically loathe to embarrass the Machine, but there are still pension bills being argued and Shortshanks has never done us any favors in Chicago, Springfield or Washington. One would have to argue, "Why not?" at some point.