The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has filed a complaint with the Illinois Labor Relations Board after several officers were allegedly unfairly suspended during investigations. Across the U.S., police departments have been taking complaints about officers more seriously since the death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests that gripped the nation.
Sidelined officers include notable ones such as the officer who punched activist Miracle Boyd in the face after a confrontation in front of the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park. Others include police officers accused of dragging a woman out of her car by her hair and then kneeling on her neck, and another officer caught on film giving someone the finger.
The FOP insists that none of those officers should have either been fired or suspended until the investigations were complete. They have filed an unfair labor practices complaint over the handling of police misconduct investigations.
Valid Reasons
FOP President John Catanzara said that punishments being leveled against police officers were unfair. Even the video of police dragging a woman out of her car by her hair and then kneeling on her neck was justified and the officers had valid reasons for treating the woman that way.
Catanzara says that the woman shown in the video was looting and that a hammer was found in her vehicle. He also said that the woman attempted to run officers over with her vehicle. Catanzara insists that nothing that was done by officers to the suspect constituted a criminally actionable offense.
However, Catanzara does not provide any evidence other than the woman’s alleged crimes to make his point. In point of fact, a defendant’s actions cannot be used to determine whether or not the police acted in accord with the law when they dragged her out of her car. This is especially true when it comes to obviously concerning actions such as using someone’s hair to drag them and then kneeling on their neck.
The problem for police officers is that they are seldom held accountable for breaking the rules that they themselves are supposed to enforce. When society does finally buckle down and begin holding officers accountable for these crimes, it seems unfair because they have never been held accountable before.
They Said, They Said
The police version of events is quite different from the defendant’s version of events. The defendant claims that the police stopped them for no reason and smashed the window on the vehicle as they were attempting to leave a Target parking lot at the Brickyard Mall. The victim further accuses the police of calling her derogatory names such as “bitch” and “savage.”
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