Police endorse Bush

MEDIA, Pa. -- Good things seem to happen to George W. Bush when he comes to Philadelphia. In August, the City of Brotherly Love hosted the Texas governor's official nomination as a presidential candidate, when 20,000 delegates swarmed the city for the 2000 Republican National Convention. And yesterday, the lagging Bush campaign got a much-needed shot in the arm by winning the endorsement of the National Fraternal Order of Police during a rally in the sleepy Philadelphia suburb of Media, Pa. Flanked by a group of local police officers on one side -- and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and local elected officials on the other -- Bush spoke for 20 minutes before a crowd of about 1,000 Delaware County supporters, extolling the virtues of his campaign and the value of the FOP nod. "It wasn't all that long ago that we were down the road in Philadelphia, having a pretty good national convention," Bush told the invitation-only crowd of party faithful. "And now I am honored to have earned the support of rank-and-file police officers throughout the nation," he continued. The FOP is the nation's oldest and largest police union, comprised of 290,000 members nationwide. While the FOP nomination has not necessarily been a predictor of success in past general elections, this year's selection has drawn attention, especially since the FOP endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1996. "George W. Bush is a leader that the rank-and-file officers on the street can say they're proud to have as their president," FOP President Gilbert Gallegos said. Gallegos went on to excite the passions of the crowd by relating Bush's support of the death penalty to the case of an infamous local death row inmate. "Gov. Bush supports the death penalty," he said. "And he would streamline the appeals process so we don't have any more Mumia Abu-Jamal situations." Abu-Jamal has drawn worldwide attention after he was sentenced to death for the 1982 murder of a Philadelphia policeman. Bush has presided over more executions than any other governor in modern history. As a high school marching band performed and confetti rained from the skies, the crowd greeted Bush's speech with near-universal applause. "I thought he was great," 2000 College alum and former Penn College Republicans Chairman Patrick Ruffini said. "George Bush is the only guy in this race who can bring people together, while the other guy manages to just piss people off." But not everyone in attendance was there to support Bush. The rally was disrupted by heckling from a group of protesters speaking out against Bush's AIDS policies and from a small group of Al Gore supporters who gathered to speak out on behalf of their candidate. While the Gore supporters were allowed to stay for the entire event, the AIDS demonstrators proved to be an interference and were removed by U.S. Secret Service agents. "I'm here to just make sure that the Gore campaign is visible at all events and that the people at this rally don't forget what Al Gore stands for," College junior and Gore supporter Tom Hickey said. "He's the candidate who's going to work to make our country more prosperous in the future."