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The FOP Florida State Lodge Trustees have published a call for a boycott of the leoaffairs.com web site and the advertisers on the site. They allege that "irreparable harm" to FOP members is caused by the site.

I have sent an Open Letter to the Trustees which appears below.

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OPEN LETTER TO THE
TRUSTEES OF THE FLORIDA STATE LODGE
OF THE FOP


You have published an announcement encouraging members of the Fraternal Order of Police to boycott the web site leoaffairs.com and the advertisers listed on the site.

You characterize the site as having negative content which causes irreparable harm to our members.

I categorically and emphatically reject the contention that the site causes irreparable harm to our members. To the contrary, for decades the site has provided a safety valve for law enforcement officers to publicly express their frustrations with agency policies which they considered unfair or oppressive, often resulting in the reform of such policies.

I am a member of Lodge 27 of the FOP, which I first joined as a young deputy sheriff in the 1960s. When I became a federal agent and moved to Washington, DC, in the 1970s I joined Lodge 1 there. After retirement and returning to Tampa in the 1980s I rejoined Lodge 27 where I am still a member.

Almost since its inception I have been an active participant on leoaffairs.com. Unlike the vast majority of users I often post using my registered true name rather than being anonymous. Thus I would be an easy target for irreparable harm. I have occasionally exchanged sharp words with anonymous posters, but I don’t feel harmed.

Which brings up an interesting question. Since you can’t identify which anonymous posters are FOP members how can you allege that any have been harmed?

Further, I reject your attempt to silence free speech -- a cornerstone of the First Amendment to the Constitution. I find your attempt to do so by the use of boycott reprehensible.

And finally, do you miss the irony of calling for the boycott of advertisers on the leoaffairs.com site when one of the same advertisers is found on the Florida State FOP web site?

Carl Shawver
Lodge 27
Tampa, Florida

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