“Much of the history of policing is not flattering,” Juneau Police Department Chief Bryce Johnson bravely admitted to the entire Juneau community just days after the horrible ambushes of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. “At many points in American history, the police enforced the status quo that was often unfair or brutal to disfavored groups.”
This is precisely why Colin Kaepernick’s protest should be respected by us all, including the members of the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Association (SCPOA) who threatened to boycott their job at 49er’s Levi stadium.
Now I don’t know what oath is taken by officers of the Santa Clara police force. But their response to Kaepernick’s protest violates the one Johnson may have sworn to uphold. The International Association of Chiefs of Police requires him to hold himself and others accountable for their actions.
Whether or not you agree with Kaepernick, his act is protected by the Constitution. But the SCPOA accused him of “inappropriate workplace behavior” that infringed on their right to work in “environments free of harassing behavior.”
However, that grievance is based mostly on a twisted interpretation of Kaepernick’s remarks about “bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” The SCPOA stretched his words into an “allegation that police officers are getting paid to murder people” and “blanket statements that police officers in general, murder minorities.”
There is a long list of cases that Kaepernick could be protesting. Just a few days before the first game in which he refused to stand for the playing of national anthem, Colby Friday, a 30-year-old African American was shot and killed by an officer in nearby Stockton, California.
A police department spokesman initially claimed Friday had matched the description of an armed robbery suspect when he was contacted by the officer. However, the next day he said Friday had been mistakenly identified as a domestic violence suspect. He still claimed Friday was armed and had dropped his gun while running away. The officer “ordered him not to pick up the weapon, but Friday bent over and grabbed the gun” and was killed. Apparently, there weren’t any witnesses to corroborate or challenge the officer’s account. He was put on three-day administrative leave.
My intent here isn’t to question the officer’s actions because I obviously don’t have all the facts. But the manner in which the Stockton Police Department’s official statement evolved, and the immediacy in which they defended the officer’s actions, are too similar to other cases, including the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago.
About the same time Friday was killed in Stockton, the Chicago Police Superintendent recommended firing several officers for making false reports in the McDonald investigation two years ago about. Officer Jason Van Dyke had claimed the African American youth was threatening him with a knife when he shot him 16 times. Seven officers had backed Van Dyke’s account.
Van Dyke was put on paid administrative leave after the shooting. But 14 months later, his story was completely undermined by the release of dash cam recording of the incident. Soon afterwards he was charged with murder. A month after that, two other officers, including his partner who was at the scene, were put on administrative leave.
Now five officers may lose their jobs because they tried to shield Van Dyke from facing any consequences for his actions.
But if Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police had their way, those officers would never have been implicated in the shameful cover-up because the video evidence would have remained suppressed. And Van Dyke would likely still be in uniform.
The timing of the Stockton police shooting and the Police Superintendent recommendation to fire those officers may be coincidental to Kaepernick’s protest. But the SCPOA is probably aware of both stories. And it’s not hard to imagine they’re even angrier at newspapers like the New Your Times whose editorial board suggested last week that union collective bargaining agreements “actually encourage officers to lie.”
Where did the Times get such information? From the Police Accountability Task Force appointed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after the national outrage over the McDonald shooting and cover-up. They reported that “collective bargaining agreements between the police unions and the City have essentially turned the code of silence into official policy” which discourages reporting of officer misconduct.
“The absence of accountability benefits only the problem officer” the task force wrote, “and undermines officers who came into the job for the right reasons and remain dedicated to serving and protecting.”
And that’s exactly what the SCPOA is doing by denying that the unflattering history of policing and police union practices gives legitimacy to Kaepernick’s protest.
