In July, the very last time Barack Obama held a press conference, Obama took the time to offer his thoughts on the professionalism of the Cambridge Police Department in their arrest of his friend Henry “Skip” Gates.   After saying that Sergeant James Crowley “acted stupidly” despite not having “all the facts,” several of Crowley’s colleagues expressed their support of him by announcing that they wouldn’t vote for Obama in 2012.  Their union has found a way to make their displeasure known much earlier — by endorsing Scott Brown over Martha Coakley:

All Members,

Members of our Association have inquired and requested that we endorse Scott Brown in the upcoming election against Martha Coakley. Ms. Coakley along with some of her campaign workers have talked publicly about how her husband is a retired Cambridge Police Officer, giving appearances that she is being endorsed by the Cambridge Police. This may be an innocent insinuation but most do take this as our giving her our support and endorsement. Yesterday, the CPPOA Executive Board voted to endorse State Senator Scott Brown in the upcoming election for US Senate. In an 11 to 2 vote, the Executive Board voted overwhelmingly in favor of the endorsement. We do not endorse anyone who advocates changes in the health care that take away any bargaining rights or increases our cost along with our contributions. Senator Brown does not support the Comprehensive Healthcare Reform Bill and promises to be the 41st vote to ensure its defeat. The current leadership at the state house, as we all know and have seen over the past two years, have an agenda to dismantle all of our hard earned bargained benefits and they will continue to dismantle these until there is a complete change from the top down. Martha Coakley is part of this Massachusetts leadership and she will continue with this agenda, only now it will be at the capital level and we need to stop it. So today, we the members of the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association endorse Scott Brown for the senate seat vacated by Senator Kennedy.

Fraternally,

Stephen Killion
President Cambridge Police

There are a couple of points of embarrassment here.  First, Coakley’s husband, as Killion notes, was a former Cambridge police officer.  Not only didn’t that give Coakley an edge, the 11-2 vote shows that it didn’t make much difference at all.  Note too that the union opposes Coakley expressly on ObamaCare, but from the perspective of protecting their collective bargaining ability.  They’re accusing her of being more or less anti-union, an interesting charge coming from any union towards a Democrat.

The other embarrassment comes with having an AG get opposed by a police union, which we saw in Worcester as well.  We missed another instance of a police organization turning its back on the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the state earlier this week, too — when the State Police Association of Massachusetts endorsed Scott Brown: