FOP Calls Out Captain

Over on the "Current Updates" section:

• On 16 March 2011, our Bill # SB1874 was scheduled to be heard before the Senate Pension Committee in Springfield. This bill, if passed, would allow for at large elections for the Chicago Police Pension Board.The bill would pool the three representatives of active rank Lt’s and Above, Sgt’s, and those below the rank of Sgt. Retirees would retain their one representative. It would also require that all three of these elected members would be assigned full time to the Pension Board.
  
  Opponents of this legislation were all Sergeants and above including: Sgt’s Association; Lt’s Association; Captain’s Association; Latin American Police Association representative; PBPA; and a host of others. As this issue has been introduced before and was opposed then by some of the same individuals, their opposition was expected. What was not expected was the level of indignation towards those of us below the rank of Sergeant by their “chosen spokesperson” Capt. Mark Buslick. He began with a several minute long oration about himself and his educational background which caused many in the room to wonder where he was going with that. They didn’t have to wonder long as Buslick then went into a tirade about the lack of necessary intellect of those whom the FOP represents. Buslick felt that those who attain rank in the Police Department are the ones who are qualified to serve on the Pension Board. Buslick extolled on the vast number of reasons for opposing this bill and when asked by a Senate Member of the Committee to give him two examples he said that if a captain were to appear before the Pension Board seeking a disability pension and there was a patrolman on the Board who had a grudge against him, the Patrolman would vote against the Captains disability. When asked for a second reason by the same Senator, Buslick could not think of another at that time.
  
  So the affect of his testimony was that even though the ranks of Lieutenant and above who number about 260 have one vote on the Board, and the Sergeants who number about 1200 and have one vote on the Board, and all those below the rank of Sergeant who number about 11,200 and have one vote on the Board is fair because they are smart enough to run the Board as it needs to be and the FOP shouldn’t be asking for the change because it may impact on those of superior intellect.
  
  We would like to thank Buslick for his testimony because although we did not feel as though we had the votes to get this out of Committee, the Committee Members recognized the virus that was his testimony.
  
  One can be sure that his testimony as to the lack of intellect in non-white shirts is not adopted by the vast majority, but the fact that these organizations used this person as the channel for their opposition is inexcusable and they should be embarrassed. As much of our morale problem in this Department is often attributed to differences between management and non-management personnel, the vile testimony of this one person is proof that we have a long way to go in addressing that problem.

Very interesting. The City's method of "divide and conquer" continues to pay dividends. And the captain, who received quite a bit of support from readers here when he got railroaded for protecting his facility and doing the right thing concerning overly aggressive media trolls, seems to have some explaining to do.