Providence Mayor David Cicilline has called Providence Firefighter’s Local 799 decision to picket this year’s Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors an attempt at “extortion”…

As you may know, next week, for the first time ever, our city will have the honor of hosting the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Providence to shine on the national stage, highlighting all the good things about our city, and all the accomplishments of our community.
But this opportunity is now in jeopardy. Because the union bosses have decided to picket next week’s meeting. The result of the union’s action is that members of the Obama Administration, including Vice President Biden, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Education and eight other members of his cabinet won’t be coming to Rhode Island.
The union thinks this will force me to agree to a bloated, unaffordable contract. They are expecting me to cave in and allow the taxpayers to pay the price. I will not give in to this political extortion.

The Providence Journal Editorial Board opted for the term “intimidation”…

It is sad that Providence firefighters will apparently refuse to set aside their tactics of intimidation during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Providence this coming weekend.

But given that the firefighters are not the only ones protesting outside of the Mayor’s conference this weekend, it’s fair to ask why this picketing by the firefighters on Saturday morning is considered intimidating…

…when this activity, from Friday afternoon’s Head Start protest, is not…

Er, maybe that second photo wasn’t such a great choice for illustrating the point I’m trying to make. Allow me to re-queue…
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But given that the firefighters are not the only ones protesting outside of the Mayor’s conference this weekend, it’s fair to ask why this picketing by the firefighters on Saturday morning is considered intimidating…

…when this activity, from Friday afternoon’s omnibus left-wing protest at Kennedy Plaza, is not…

Have you heard anyone, Mayor Cicilline or the Projo editorial board or anyone else, say that the assorted left-wingers who have showed up in Providence for the Mayor’s conference shouldn’t be there, because they’re making the city and the state look bad? If not, then why should firefighters, uniquely amongst the assorted protesters, stand accused of casting Rhode Island in a bad light? (Especially, when according to this Richard C. Dujardin Projo story, the left-wing protests seem as likely as any to discourage visitors from attending events associated with the conference)…

With signs declaring “Take Back the city” and “Mayor Cicilline, We will not be silenced,” a noisy crowd of nearly 300 activists marched from Broad Street to the center of Kennedy Plaza Friday night, calling on the nation’s mayors to enact measures to make sure federal stimulus dollars go into projects that will benefit the poor — instead of the pockets of corporations with political connections….
There is no question that sounds from at least part of the noisy demonstration filtered into the white tent where the nation’s mayors were gathered, though drums from a regimental band drowned out some of the sounds.
One mayor, from outside Chicago, said he hadn’t expected “any of this” and called a cab to take his family to a restaurant somewhere else.

I’ll offer two theories of why the focus is on saying that firefighters shouldn’t protest, while taking no position on what other protesters are doing. As always, I welcome objections to my ideas and the addition of others.

1. There may be a sincere belief amongst some Rhode Islanders that a union protest is inherently more significant than a non-union one, because a union protest can “compel” certain actions by government officials. However, this belief is hardly an uncontested one. John E. Mulligan of the Projo provides one example from a visiting mayor…

   “This is a very bad decision that was made” by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, and other White House officials to withdraw from the convention,” Patrick Henry Hays, mayor of North Little Rock, Ark., said in an interview. But Hays said if he is invited to the White House, he would probably accept. “I don’t want to take what has been a pretty bitter plate of sour grapes and try to magnify that,” he said.
   “I am a Democrat” from a strong union family background, Hays said, “and I can’t tell you how excited I am about the partnership that has been forged” between mayors and the White House in the early months of the Obama administration. But he called it “a big mistake” for the White House to back out of the mayors meeting in order to respect firefighters union picket lines aimed at Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline….
   Hays said the firefighters success in keeping the Obama administration out of Providence might give other municipal unions ideas. “I’d be very reluctant to invite an Obama administration official to my city now,” Hays said, because a union in bargaining talks with him might raise a picket line.

   …and Ian Donnis of WRNI (1290 AM) radio’s On Politics blog provides another, from the text of an e-mail written by a local Obama supporter…

   I am extremely disappointed in the response of President Obama and his administration to the dispute between the City of Providence and the Providence firefighters. It is a clear signal that the President is lacking in his support for the challenges that cities and towns across the country are engaged in to manage the impossible budget problems they face in these unprecedented times.

   Encouragingly, the leaders of America’s cities seem to understand that there’s more governing a municipality than figuring out how to give the unions what they want — and it’s only our current Federal leadership that seems to believe that unquestioning deference to unions is a core governing principle!
   The solution here is to choose different leaders, not to discourage protests.
   
2. Beyond the issue of union versus non-union protesting, I can’t help but think there’s something deeper at work. To my ear, at least, there are definite similarities between some of the commentary discouraging the firefighters’ protest and some of the commentary discouraging the recent statehouse protests (albeit originating from different sources).
   I think tea-party-goers will know the kinds of arguments that I’m talking about, i.e. what do you really think you are adding by making your dissatisfaction public? If better solutions were possible, don’t you think the government would have already bestowed them upon you? Don’t you realize your job, if you’ve got one — whether you’re in the public or the private sector — is to do your job QUIETLY and let government handle everything else, because it knows what’s best for you?
   I know I’m not terribly impressed when these kinds of arguments are hurled in my direction — I don’t think the firefighters should be expected to take them seriously either.