olidarity is an important characteristic for any union and that’s especially true of the PBA — a union of police officers, to whom the phrase “sticking together” has more meaning than for most other groups because, sometimes, it’s a matter of life and death. In December, death in the line of duty came to two of our members, Police Officers Dillon Stewart and Daniel Enchautegui, and PBA members knew it was time to demonstrate that solidarity.

The PBA issued a call for a show of unity and strength at the arraignments and other legal proceedings for the accused killers in these cases, and our members answered that call in great numbers. Led by the PBA executive board, they crowded the courtrooms and courthouse steps to deliver a message that was heard loudly and clearly in newspaper headlines and TV reports: “Attack one of us, and you attack us all.”

The officers carried signs calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty and PBA President Pat Lynch voiced support for legislation, which has since been enacted, enforcing stronger penalties for people convicted of crimes of violence against police officers.

The solidarity of PBA members has been clearly expressed on many occasions over the past few years — at Times Square rallies and City Hall protests and several other public gatherings to further our salary-increase aims, including the very public campaign to keep the contract pressure on Mayor Bloomberg in the weeks before the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. The union also publicly fought and won its fight to depose Laura Blackburne, the Criminal Court judge who was so anti-cop that she helped plan and execute a wanted felon’s escape from her courtroom.

As our members have demonstrated that they know very well, in unity — and numbers — there’s strength.