FOP lobbyist Jim Pasco (left) pictured in 2008 with Michael J. Wozniak, a retired police officer and one of
the sponsors of California initiative 227 to all but end bilingual education in California.
James O. Pasco Jr., the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, didn't much care for what President Obama had to say Thursday about racist police behavior in Ferguson, Missouri. Not that the president said it was racist. Here's Mario Trujillo
reporting:
"I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha's Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation," director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.
"I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors’ office," Pasco added. [...]
"I'm not there, and neither is the president," Pasco said. "That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will all be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven't seen anything from afar — and maybe the president has — that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except to restore order."
I'm half-blind but I have no problem seeing what the cops are doing in Ferguson even though I am not there. Perhaps, Jimbo, you should turn on your friggin' television. Or take a look at the photos and videos posted here and elsewhere across the internet.
Please read about Pasco's many roles below the fold.
The president called for "peace and calm on the streets":
There is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests, or to throw protestors in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights. And here, in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs and report to the American people on what they see on the ground. Put simply, we all need to hold ourselves to a high standard, particularly those of us in positions of authority.
Pasco has an interesting past, to say the least. Here's James V. Grimaldi and Sari Horwitz
reporting in 2010. Pasco ...
worked against the nation's big-city mayors and police chiefs in 2007 when those groups launched a major campaign to reverse a decision by Congress that kept federal records about guns used in crimes from being made public.
The FOP's backing was crucial in deflecting the chiefs' criticism that the secrecy undermined crime fighting. "It was very effective," said Arkadi Gerney, special assistant to New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), who has crusaded for tougher gun laws.
Pasco is a product of the capital's revolving-door culture. Before joining the FOP in 1995, he was the chief legislative representative for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency that regulates the gun industry and enforces federal gun laws. People who know him describe him as a charming operator whose motives can be opaque. [...]
Pasco is more than a lobbyist for the FOP. At the same time that he has worked for the police union, he has kept a lucrative side business representing beer, cigarette and entertainment companies out of the FOP's Capitol Hill offices. His firm, Jim Pasco & Associates, has represented Philip Morris, MillerCoors Brewing Co. and Sony BMG Entertainment, according to his disclosure reports filed with Congress. The filings show that Pasco used the FOP's address and phone number and his FOP e-mail address while working for corporate interests.
Among other things, Pasco was the lobbyist for FOP in 1998 when the organization took the side of the tobacco industry over a bill putting the Food and Drug Administration in charge of regulating tobacco and raising federal cigarette taxes by $1.10 a pack. FOP's claim was that the bill would create a black market in cigarettes. What Pasco didn't say to those he lobbied was that he was simultaneously working for tobacco giant Philip Morris. As of 2010, the company had paid him $600,000 over the years for his lobbying.
In 2007, with Pasco leading the charge, FOP was a key element in ensuring that an amendment sponsored by Republican Rep. W. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas was not repealed. Tiarht was a founding member of the tea party who left the House to seek a Senate seat in 2010, but he lost in the primary. His amendment had been passed in 2003 to keep information about guns recovered in crimes from being publicly linked to the dealers who originally sold them. Many big-city mayors had favored the repeal.
Pasco is a real piece of work. One of the reasons "corruption" is such a commonly used term when discussing D.C. politics.