Bush's policies have made it hard for every city in the country to remain secure. But it's particularly egregious in New York, Ground Zero of the GOP's political strategy. We've seen the cynical repackaging of the World Trade Center attacks as little more than a GOP talking point that completely ignores the thousands of New Yorkers killed. Even as the GOP has shuffled pork to its Dixieland base, they've cut off the funds needed to make New York safe.
But the police and firefighter unions aren't taking it lying down.
Salon has the story.
Aug. 5, 2004 | New York -- The Republican National Convention is more than three weeks away but an unlikely group of demonstrators has already turned up to protest: off-duty police officers and firefighters agitating for a new labor contract.
One officer outside Madison Square Garden held a sign that read: "Low pay (plus) fewer cops (plus) terrorism (equals) formula for disaster."
The demonstration last month was another reminder that a bitter labor dispute involving public safety unions could further cloud a convention already consumed by security concerns.
Delegates will arrive amid new warnings that terrorists have plotted to strike the New York Stock Exchange and other sites in Manhattan. But union officials say the heightened alert hasn't discouraged plans for off-duty protests.
"There's a lot of unhappy firefighters out there," said Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
At the Democratic National Convention in Boston, last-minute contract settlements averted protests by police and firefighter unions. Much of the rhetoric -- laced with references to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- suggests there's little hope for a similar deal.
Cassidy dismissed the city's offer of a 5 percent wage increase over three years to police and firefighters as "an insult to the heroes of Sept. 11."
"I don't cross picket lines, I never have" -- John Kerry.
I wonder what Dubya's response will be.