Three Police Unions Protest

Three local police unions formed a picket line on Mass. Ave. in front of pound Hall yesterday to protest comments made earlier this year by Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, who has said police officers are taught to lie on the witness stand.

approximately 50 officers from the Boston, Cambridge and Harvard police departments walked in silence holding signs which read "Dershowitz is the liar" and "Police testify to the facts."

"We want [University benefactors] to know what kind of professor is teaching at Harvard," said Stephen J. Hall, the president of the Cambridge police patrol officers association, who organized the rally.

"[Dershowitz] is teaching the lawyers of tomorrow that police officers lie," Hall said. "In this day and age,[police] should be held to a high standard."

Dershowitz delivered a written statement to the protesters, saying that he has asked Harvard to convene a conference on "testilying" next year.

"The difference between a police state and a democracy is that in a democracy all citizens remain free to criticize the police," Dershowitz told the picketers.

"I... hope they will listen to what I have to say since my views--which are all based on commission reports and testimony of police officers-- have been deliberately misstated by some who wish to encourage divisiveness, rather than to address a serious problem for which many lawyers and policy share responsibility," Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz further said that he did not coin the term "testilying" as union members had suggested. Instead, the term was first used by police officers in a 1994 New York City Commission report to describe the pervasive policy perjury in search and seizure cases.

But police said that Dershowitz's comments are unprofessional and untrue.

"for him to make a general statement like that about police officers is an insult to the professional police officers in this country," said Officer Robert Kotowski, the president of Harvard's police union.

"For someone who is an allegedly professional attorney, it's unacceptable," Kotowski said.

The protest, which was held from 3:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., included several members of the Local 40 Carpenter's Union. "We're happy to support the police," said Jack Wayland, president of the union.

The protesters did not block traffic on Mass. Ave. But marched in an orderly fashion on the sidewalk.