Talk radio hosts ‘spitting mad’

By Jon Dougherty

A coalition of radio talk show hosts and a national law enforcement
group is initiating a drive to raise funds for a reward leading to the
identification and arrest of persons who spat on and harassed an Albany,
New York, Police Department honor guard last week.

The opening ceremonies at the state Democratic Party convention —
held May 16 at Albany’s Pepsi Arena — were attended by state Democratic
delegates and served as a platform to nominate first lady Hillary
Clinton as one of New York’s two fall senatorial candidates. President
Bill Clinton also attended.

The incident occurred as five officers, in full dress uniform and
carrying an American flag, proceeded into the arena. Honor guard members
later told authorities that some people in the crowd of 11,500
Democratic supporters spat on them and called them “Nazis,” as well as
“members of (New York City Mayor Rudolph) Giuliani’s ‘Third Reich.'”

Talk Radio Network host Bob Just

Upon learning of the incident, Talk Radio Network’s

Bob Just,
a nationally syndicated host based in Oregon, went on the air and offered to start a reward fund with $100. Realizing he needed to make the outreach bigger, Just contacted TRN’s “American Crime Line” host Ed Nowicki, who was convinced the spitting incident was indeed a crime. This led Just to the

Law Enforcement Alliance of America
which agreed to join the effort.

“We thought it was a great idea,” said LEAA Executive Director Jim Fotis. “We know what it does to the morale of law enforcement personnel to have an outrage like this ignored. No matter what happens, our officers should know we care.”

Together, they started to put the process in place in a matter of days, as Just contacted other hosts about raising money for a reward to encourage eyewitnesses to come forward and identify those responsible. To date, authorities have been unable or unwilling to pinpoint who was involved.

“I’d love to identify these individuals,” said an angry Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings last week. “It’s unfortunate there are people who don’t know how to act. It’s behavior I find reprehensible.”

So far, several major talk hosts have agreed to help Just and the LEAA raise funds. The idea, said Just, is to involve talk radio audiences in the effort to raise the reward money by engaging their hosts in the cause all across the country.

“Anything we can do to help bring these people to justice I will support. This whole thing was a disgrace. We need to do everything we can to find them,” said

WABC
New York talk show host

Sean Hannity,
who agreed early on to help Just and the LEAA. Hannity also co-hosts the highly successful “Hannity and Colmes” show nightly on Fox television.

Also taking up the torch quickly was

Talk Radio Network’s
late-night national host

Roger
Fredinberg,
who said his audience was furious over the incident.

“If we’ve reached the point that this is no big deal to the media elite, then America’s worse off than I think,” said Fredinberg.

Just said there were others considering joining the effort, including TRN’s Congressman Bob Dornan.

According to a legal assessment by the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, spitting on another person constitutes second-degree harassment, for which offenders could be arrested and spend time in jail. LEAA is the nation’s largest nonprofit coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and citizens, and has a membership of about 65,000 members and supporters.

Some knowledgeable sources have maintained the perpetrators who spat on the honor guard were close DNC supporters, rather than random attendees as Albany policy officials have suggested, because they were seated in sections close to the podium reserved for guests with special passes.

“I think the bottom line of this story is that the spitting on the Honor Guard at the convention was done because of the hostility toward law enforcement over the Amadou Diallo case that was removed from the New York City and tried in Albany,” Just told WorldNetDaily on Thursday.

“But the shame of this is that the Democrats — my party — are putting power and party loyalty over protecting the flag, not to mention the honor of our men and women in law enforcement. It is a story that sums up the partisan atmosphere that pervaded the impeachment process,” Just said.

Discussing his motivation for seeing those who spat on and harassed the officers held accountable, Just said, “I am disgusted that in the name of protecting the party — and Mrs. Clinton — the perpetrators of this outrage are getting off without rebuke — not to mention arrest.”

The first lady became the first wife of a sitting president to run for office when she accepted her nomination last week. She is vying for the Senate seat being vacated by veteran New York senator and fellow Democrat, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who is retiring after his current term.

Until last week, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was Mrs. Clinton’s Republican opponent and was favored to win by most polls. However, when Giuliani dropped out to focus on treatment for his recently diagnosed prostate cancer, current four-term GOP congressman Rep. Rick Lazio stepped up to run in Giuliani’s place.

“The real crime here is not just the jerks who acted out their hatred,” Just said, “It’s all the Democrats who did nothing to protect the officers and help arrest the thugs.

“They’re either cowards who pretended not to see what was happening, or they approved of the incident,” he said. “Either way, I’m ashamed of my party.”

Adding that an official and public apology is appropriate, Just went further to say, “we should all want to find the people who actually did it. Wouldn’t it be great to see them apologize on the national evening news?”

Just said if the reward money surpasses the $25,000 mark, the overage will be evenly divided between the reward fund and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s new Museum Fund, proposed in a bill sponsored by Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. In the unlikely event the bill fails, the Memorial Fund will be given the extra money.

If no one is apprehended, all the monies will go to the Memorial fund.

“Either way, it’s a good cause,” said LEAA’s Fotis. “If we don’t catch the culprits, at least we get to support a fund that will educate the people about the realities of law enforcement, which could prevent this kind of despicable behavior from ever happening again.”

Just will officially kick off the reward drive at 4 pm Eastern time today on the Sean Hannity Show on

WABC radio.

Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.