I'll tell you I was scared. I filed a police report. I didn't get no sleep. Every dark alley, I passed I wondered who was there. Simply because the union is a classic kleptocracy, like Tammany Hall.
Political machines resort to crooked elections whenever their survival is threatened.
What's at stake is never the interests of constituents. What the kleptocrats are defending is their control of the apparatus that provides them with patronage jobs, perks, stipends, credit cards, travel to exotic places, plus the illicit income from the corrupt schemes that tend to flourish under patronage regimes. A classic study of the corrupting influence of patronage is provided by the double career of Lifeguard Supervisors union president Peter Stein. That's his third check, because he also works full time for the city as a teacher. And he's paid as a grievance representative by DC 37.