Enjoying a present I couldn't refuse Enjoying a present I couldn't refuse
by Rosie DiManno
Toronto Star Columnist
Toronto StarNot sure why, but I seem to be on the mailing list for Tour Of Duty, ``the official publication of the Toronto Police Association.'' Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I encourage all freebies, all boodle, all swag, all graft. (Surely I don't have to explain the graft thing to cops.) At The Star, we're not allowed to accept any freebie unless you can eat it, smell it, or peruse it. Food, flowers and books are vaguely acceptable. Cops have never sent me flowers. Hardly anybody sends me flowers. But I'd gladly pay for Tour Of Duty, were it available at my local news agent. This periodical is the best read on the rack. And the January, 2000 issue is a keeper. There, on the cover, is a photograph that perfectly captures the ethos of the police association executive; the copper mafia (I mean that in a metaphorical sense, naturally) at its unsmiling best, from Don Craig Bromell to Consiglieri Martin Weatherall to all the various buttonmen. One senior police source has tagged the association's executive brethren - and they are all male, of course - as The Men In Black. And, yes, the guys do always look as if they're ready to attend a funeral. Probably some subliminal message there. But the family portrait on the cover of this month's Tour Of Duty puts me more in mind of The Sopranos, the hit TV show about, well, one dysfunctional mafia family. Not to belabour the metaphor but methinks Don Craig will get a huge kick out of the comparison. I once referred to Bromell in print as the flatfoot emperor, which he now tells me is the working title of his biography. You're welcome. In any event, I draw your attention to a section of Bromell's editorial ramblings, the view from the president, wherein he discusses his relationship with the media: ``I have learned after the hundreds of interviews I've had with different levels of media that responding to the media is an art. There are different rules - the first being that they don't always print what you say or mean. The second rule is that no matter how negative or positive they are towards you, you have to co-operate and take the good with the bad.'' Let me guess. I'm the bad, right? S'okay. Bromell gets a lot of good press from The Star, opinion-neutral press, and a nearly guaranteed forum for much of his agenda. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours . . . that kind of thing. It's how newspapers work, I'm told. So hardly anybody here at The Star paid much attention when word first came down, last September, that the police union had hired telemarketing firms to reach some 100,000 households in an effort to raise money that would then be used to promote law-and-order issues, as defined by the union, i.e. pushing for tougher penalties against young offenders and parole violators. Allegedly. The campaign is called ``Operation True Blue.'' Sound harmless? ``We're finding a lot of people share the same views as us when it comes to the justice system,'' Bromell told my colleague John Duncanson earlier this week. These donations, Bromell claims, will not be used to pay for the private eyes the association has already hired to sniff out dirt on his enemies, including politicians who don't toe the union line on policing issues. But some of the funds will be put towards developing a database to be utilized come the next municipal election, for starters. Just so the union can get its message out. As if anyone has tried to muzzle Bromell et al. thus far. Guess that's to promote and proselytize for all the folks out there who aren't lucky enough to receive their own copy of Tour Of Duty.
Courtesy of the Toronto Star
January 22, 2000
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