UPDATE 3/10/2014
It looks like the hoaxster is doubling down on his story, so I’ll double down on busting it.
First, there is now a Wikipedia entry for the “Connecticut Peace Officer’s Association”.
The Connecticut Peace Officers Association (CPOA) is a Connecticut-based law enforcement organization. It is most known for its controversial resistance of the state’s restrictive gun laws. In 2014 it gathered 250 signatures from law enforcement officers around the state on an open letter refusing to enforce the new law.[1][2][3][4]
The organization was founded in 1992 in order to provide a united lobbying front for peace officers in the state. For most of its history it has been a marginal player in Connecticut politics.
Torrey Grimes is the current chairman of the CPOA.
Now, we could talk about the fact that in the 22yrs this org has supposedly been around, the only thing they’ve done worth noting is the alleged letter. Or we could talk about how a 25yr police veteran and head of a large organization has never been mentioned in any local news media (not even now, btw), or that public records don’t show a person named Torrey Grimes living in CT. Or maybe we could discuss how according to the revision history the wiki entry for this 22yr old group was created just today by none other than Tyson Jackson. Nah, let’s skip those. Let’s talk about how they lobby for peace officers in CT.
As we’ve mentioned in classes and blog posts about testifying in Hartford, any time you appear before the General Assembly its public record. Any documents you submit are public record. Now CCDL has been around just 5yrs. Click here to see all the written documents we’ve submitted in 5yrs. Now lets see how many documents the CPOA has submitted in 22yrs, click here. Also, if they are an actual lobbying group, their lobbyists need to be licensed with the Office of State Ethics. You can download lists of all the licensed lobbyists here. There is no listing for CPOA or any variations of their name.
Tyson Jackson has also published the promised article (minus the 250 promised signatures) at http://ezinearticles.com/?Connecticut-Gun-Confiscation-Law-Will-Not-Be-Enforced,-Police-Say&id=8366211. Now, one might wonder why an established organization would use a free article-hosting site instead of their own website. But let’s skip that. Let’s just look at Tyson Jackson’s picture, which is posted on both the article and his bio.
Now, compare That to photos of comedian Tim Northern. If you aren’t sure, check out Tim’s Facebook page.
Lastly, Jackson’s article also quotes ” John Porshboll, a lawyer who specializes in representing cops in disciplinary trouble with their departments”. Again, all lawyers must be licensed to practice in Connecticut, and the state makes it easy to check if they are. CT Attorney/Firm Lookup
No John Porsboll listed there. As a matter of fact, google doesn’t find any references to “Porshboll” anywhere in the world, except Jackson’s article.
BUSTED! Can we PLEASE stop passing this around as the truth now?
These stories play up our hopes that the police will not enforce an unconstitutional law, and I guess we really want to believe they’re true. But passing around wrong or misleading info doesn’t help. I’ve often said we have truth and facts on our side, all the anti’s have is emotion and lies. Let’s not stoop to their level….. we’re better than that.