With Jeff Follmer Heading the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association — It Is Not Surprising that a Noticeable Proportion of the City’s Cops Are Apparently Clueless — regarding the Nature of Constitutional Policing

15 December 2014

I say this as an ex-police watch commander

As we see some high profile athletes express welcome support for the practice of racially unbiased justice, some police “just gotta” sound off like meatheads. These caricature-like donut eaters do not understand that they are sworn to protect the Constitution and people’s access to it:

The Cleveland police union [see here] president said on Sunday that Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins' "Justice for Tamir Rice [and John Crawford]" shirt is "pathetic."

Jeff Follmer said . . . that Hawkins' shirt was disrespectful and demanded an apology from the Browns.

"He's an athlete. He's someone with no facts of the case whatsoever," Follmer said.

"He's disrespecting the police on a job that we had to do and make a split-second decision."

Rice, 12, was fatally shot on Nov. 22 by rookie Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann less than two seconds after he arrived to investigate a complaint about Tamir carrying what turned out to be a fake gun.

Crawford, 22, was fatally shot by police on Aug. 5 while holding a toy rifle inside a Walmart in Beavercreek, outside Dayton.

"He should stick to playing football and let us worry about law enforcement," Follmer said.

"The players don't know what our job entails. Don't judge us by what you're reading in the media."

I have no idea whether Association President Follmer is actually a fool, but he certainly sounds like one, if his comments have been accurately reported.

Three points are telling

First, Follmer reportedly implies that athletes cannot know facts.

Second, he assumes that “disrespect” for public institutions is not a constitutionally protected right.

And third, he appears to presume that law enforcement gets to unilaterally decide how to enforce laws under our constitutional system.

With a leadership attitude like Follmer’s appears to be

It is no wonder that the US Department of Justice had to intervene against Cleveland PD’s series of Bill of Rights trashings:

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation into the use of force by the Cleveland Division of Police has found a pattern or practice of unreasonable and unnecessary use of force.

The investigation, launched in March, 2013 . . . . concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that Cleveland police officers engage in a pattern or practice of unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

That pattern or practice includes:

The unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons;

The unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force including Tasers, chemical spray and fists;

Excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis, including in cases where the officers were called exclusively for a welfare check; and

The employment of poor and dangerous tactics that place officers in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable.

The investigation concluded that Cleveland officers are not provided with adequate training, policy guidance, support, and supervision.

The investigation found that division fails to:

Adequately review and investigate officers’ uses of force;

Fully and objectively investigate all allegations of misconduct;

Identify and respond to patterns of at-risk behavior;

Provide its officers with the support, training, supervision, and equipment needed to allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively;

Adopt and enforce appropriate policies; and

Implement effective community policing strategies.

© 2014 Office of Public Affairs – US Department of Justice, Justice Department and City of Cleveland Agree to Reform Division of Police After Finding a Pattern or Practice of Excessive Force, United States Department of Justice (04 December 2014) (extracts)

Consider Follmer’s poor timing and choice of subject matter

About 10 days after the DOJ announced that a federal court is going to monitor his police department for violating the US Constitution on a regular basis, union president Follmer — evidently reflecting the opinion of those who elected him — went on public record complaining that people in the public eye are actually exercising their right to free speech.

And he essentially further said that the totalitarian state’s enforcement arm knows better than our public how American citizens should be treated.

Not content with being so visibly unappreciative of the Bill of Rights principles at the core of police work, Mr. Follmer chose to make his reportedly asinine comments because “athlete” Andrew Hawkins was upset that two innocent people had been killed by cops for (very likely) no professionally justifiable reason.

We can infer that Mr. Follmer “intuits” — meaning that thinking would be too laborious a process for him to undertake — that American athletes should be treated like the Romans treated their gladiators — the “shut up and die” concept.

It would be difficult to find a more telling example of leadership simultaneously proving itself to be . . .

. . . occupationally unprincipled, dictatorial, and lacking in emotional control — in a profession supposedly built on not demonstrating any of these qualities.

The moral? — If we could get violent morons out of police work, that would be a start

Perhaps we could begin with anyone who thinks that Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Follmer took an occupationally laudable approach in (reportedly) announcing his leader’s opinion of Andrew Hawkins’ perfectly legitimate shirt.

PeteFree.com

With Jeff Follmer Heading the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association — It Is Not Surprising that a Noticeable Proportion of the City’s Cops Are Apparently Clueless — regarding the Nature of Constitutional Policing