South Florida Council of Firefighters President "gets cuffed" Obama Rally

Fire chief gets cuffed at Obama Rally
Police, suspecting a man who jumped a fence may be armed, arrested an off-duty fireman-- who turned out to be holding keys. -
BY DAVID OVALLE
Believing that a bag of grenades had been found near Sen. Barack Obama's motorcade route to Miami, officers at Tuesday's Bicentennial Park rally arrested a man who jumped a security fence and carried ''shiny metal objects'' in his hand.

The grenade threat turned out to be a dud -- and the fence jumper turned out to be Dean Parkerson, an off-duty Hialeah Fire Department district chief.

He was holding keys in his hands.

Parkerson, 47, is president of the South Florida Council of Firefighters. Police said he ignored warnings to stay out of the restricted area.

''You're making a big f------- mistake. I'm a fire chief,'' yelled Parkerson, who was clad in a ''Firefighters for Obama'' yellow T-shirt. According to the police report, he also claimed to work with the Secret Service and authorities said he had apparently been drinking.

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His history should matter a lot more than this one thing in considering his future. You don't get where he was being a bad person and you don't make it to fire chief if you were not good at what you do.