Police Union Says Fuck Officers, Law And Order; Tosses Endorsement To Donald Trump
The Fraternal Order of Police isn’t here to protect cops from anything but accountability. It doesn’t actually care about the rank-and-file, not when it can leverage its power to secure even more power. It doesn’t care about law and order, despite being the definitive figurehead of that ideal.
No, the FOP is — and has always been — about securing its own power while providing a source for comments on police misconduct that journalists should never consider utilizing. It’s pure garbage. It’s the reason cops continue to dodge accountability. And it’s the reason law-and-order candidates keep getting elected, even when it’s clear literally anyone else would be a better option.
The FOP claims to be the voice of the rank-and-file. But the only officers it truly speaks for are the worst officers still capable of paying union dues. The presidential election is less than two months away. And, speaking only for itself, the Fraternal Order of Police has given its support to a candidate who cheered on supporters who openly assaulted police officers en route to invading a federal building.
Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, announced today that the members of the FOP voted to endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.
“Public safety and border security will be important issues in the last months of this campaign,” Yoes said. “Our members carefully considered the positions of the candidates on the issues and there was no doubt—zero doubt—as to who they want as our President for the next four years: Donald J. Trump.”
Gross. That’s a terrible decision by the FOP. Worse than that is Patrick Yoes’ claim this is representative of the view of a majority of officers who are union members. This is just the view of those leading FOP chapters. The rank-and-file aren’t exactly happy the FOP has endorsed a candidate who continues to unequivocally support the people who attacked their fellow officers during the raid of the Capitol building.
Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead is joining over 100 law enforcement officials nationwide in condemning FOP’s endorsement. He said he is endorsing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
In its endorsement announcement, FOP called Trump a partner and a leader, saying the organization stands with him.
During a Harris-Walz press call, Birkhead called out the group for supporting a convicted felon over a former prosecutor. He said she “understands the needs of the communities like mine, and has always had our back.”
That’s not exactly welcome news for Kamala Harris, who has been trying to downplay her former career as a prosecutor. But, in all fairness, Harris never expressed support for criminals who attacked Capitol police officers. And, despite her past efforts to jail as many people as possible, she’s never suggested insurrectionists should be pardoned, much less hailed as “hostages” of an unfair government. That’s Trump’s territory. And despite his history of supporting lawlessness (and violating laws!), the top cop shop in the nation says Trump’s their man.
This endorsement shits on a ton of cops, especially those who had to deal with the aftermath of Trump’s refusal to engage in a peaceful transition of power in 2020. Here’s how the union, that claims to speak for hundreds of thousands of police officers, responded to the officers who were attacked during the January 6th Capitol raid:
As Officer Michael Fanone told Don Lemon, the FOP didn’t even reach out to him after the attack, despite his appearances on CNN. Fanone said that he was the one who had to reach out to the FOP about the incident. A whopping 140 members of the Capitol Police and D.C. Metro Police were injured that day and some are still out on medical leave. Others will never be able to work in their jobs again.
“I finally picked up the phone and called the president of the national FOP, Patrick Yoes and, and described to him the displeasure I felt that there was no outreach being done not only to myself but to other officers,” said Fanone. “And I asked him to do a few things to make up for that lack of support, and he was unwilling to do any of them. I asked him to publicly denounce the 21 house Republicans that voted against the gold medal bill.”
Democrats had a bill that would given the highest congressional honor to the officers who risked their lives that day. The FOP refused to speak out in support of that or against the Republicans who opposed it.
This alone should make it clear the FOP is not so much a police union as it is a political action committee. It doesn’t care about officers who are attacked by people who slap thin blue line bumper stickers on their trucks before mouthing off at city council meetings about their refusal to comply to with gun possession laws. The FOP is in business for itself, but it continues to make all officers pay for things they may not actually support. That sounds more like a political entity than a worker-focused entity that does everything it can to ensure all union members are treated fairly and are well-represented by their local union leaders.
This endorsement has only encouraged Donald Trump’s police state desires. Once again, Trump is promising to bring back things that have never worked because, if nothing else, they’ll result in more poor minorities being arrested and jailed.
Trump said if he wins in November, he would sign legislation to “strengthen protections for police officers” and would “crack down on Marxist prosecutors,” citing district attorneys in Philadelphia and Los Angeles specifically.
He also called for a return to “proven crime fighting methods, including stop and frisk and broken windows policing.” Trump has previously praised the use of stop and frisk policing and its use in New York City under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).
These are the policies that were in place during the period where violent crime rates were at their highest. To say they didn’t work undersells the actual level of failure. We’re still in a period of historically low crime rates and yet we’re constantly being told by people like Trump and his supporters that America has reached record levels of lawlessness — something that can only be brought under control by expanding police powers and further limiting the rights of Americans. The support of the FOP only encourages this sort of thinking.
These two garbage entities were made for each other. They want more power and less accountability. And they claim they’re doing this for the little people — rank-and-file officers and/or millions of American voters. But they’re only doing it for themselves. And they’re only doing it because it will allow them to return to the open bigotry and casual rights violations that have long defined policing in America.