District Attorney sells out cops. POA goes on offensive
In a scathing email to 1,500 active-duty and retired officers, the president of San Jose’s police union took the unusual step of publicly casting off one of its traditional crime-fighting allies — District Attorney Jeff Rosen — saying the group will no longer run the prosecutor’s monthly column in its magazine and will try to thwart Rosen’s statewide political ambitions.
The email blast from Jim Unland, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, came in response to Rosen’s endorsement of two local candidates who support Measure B, the city’s controversial pension reform act. San Jose voters overwhelmingly approved Measure B in 2012 over strong union opposition. Since then, hundreds of cops have been quitting for better-paying cities, and the exodus has coincided with increasing crime rates and longer response times.