Dead Cop Photo On Cd Costs Firm $2.2 Million

A federal judge ordered a record company Friday to pay $2.2 million in damages to local police for putting a staged photograph of a supposedly dead police officer on the cover of a punk rock CD.

Richard F. Stott, lawyer for San Francisco-based Alternative Tentacles Records and its owner, Eric Boucher, did not immediately return a phone call Friday.

The local Fraternal Order of Police union took the photograph of Sgt. John Whalen in 1985 as part of a campaign to stave off police cuts.

“You wouldn’t sacrifice your life for a million bucks,” the poster read. “A Philadelphia police officer does it for a lot less. They need your support.”

A punk rock band that got its name by inserting a profanity into the word “Crucifix” used the photograph seven years later on its CD.

Songs included “Cops for Fertilizer” and “Pig in a Blanket,” all of which advocated killing police.