Statement from Minneapolis Police Department Union Head

There has been alot of click bait and trigger pulling headlines and statements made recently. I feel like we need to relax the trigger finger and take the time to research and be aware of what is going on beyond the surface level. I have spent the last couple hours taking notes and thinking about this blog.

First off, I support our boys in blue. I firmly believe 90% plus of people that put on a badge are good people that want to do good. That being said, there are bad apples. Second, I am fully aware that as a 36 year old white male living in a rural area I do not fully understand the situation. However, I can spend an hour or so on the internetz and have a little bit of understanding despite not living it.

Those two points being made, here we go. I am not a fan of public unions. I understand the need for unions and protecting the workers and blah blah blah. Unions have changed from helping good workers to protecting bad. Google the MPD union agreement for 2020. I can't find it. The one for 2017-2019 can be found and it is ridiculous. A MPD officer involved in a situation resulting in death of either a MPD officer or civilian cannot be formally interviewed until they are provided a explaination of what they will be questioned about. Read that line again and if you don't understand stop reading my blog now. 

Now onto the statement from Bob Kroll, head of the MPD union. I have 7 points from this statement I am going to address.

1. What has been evident throughout this process is you have lacked support from the top. Um, a MPD officer committed murder and the upper levels of government aren't supporting it? No shit? I do not want to paint every officer in the MPD with the same brush because I 100% believe that the majority of the force are good people trying to do a hard job. However, to complain about lack of support after an officer committed murder while on duty is idiotic. Think before you write.

2. Starting with minimizing the size of our police force and diverting funds to community activists. Okay, I will agree that the MPD, along with most police forces in this country, is probably understaffed, but diverting funds to community activists is probably a good thing. Especially considering the history of the MPD. You can read about that here. 

3. National Guard deployment. I am a little on the fence on this one. Kroll claims that if the MPD had been allowed to use "less lethal" (rubber bullets, etc.) force and coordinate with the National Guard the riots would of been stopped. Eh, maybe? This is the sanest statement so far and is likely correct. We won't ever know. 

4. When the critical incident took place, the Federation (official title of the union) released a brief statement. The statement was bullshit. It was a tone deaf reaction to an obvious situation. You can not watch a man be murdered and ask for more time to evaluate the evidence. Part of the reason myself and your board have been absent is like you we have simply been overworked and overwhelmed. GTFO with this shit. You have had nothing but time to figure out what to do and this is what you come up with? Be better, be smarter. A brief side note, the fact that Kroll implied he was discussing ways to bypass the governor with a senator? That's scary.

5. I've worked with other police leaders from New York to Las Vegas to push our messaging on a national level. Ok, at this point we all know the news gets spun. Whether right or left or whatever, all the news has spin. There is no spinning the fact that George Floyd was murdered by a cop. There is no spin, there is no angle. This is a guy trying to spin a story to cover his own ass and admitting he did it. 

6. What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. Dude had a record. This is a fact. It is also irrelevant. I have a record. I would bet a significant percentage of people reading this have a recod. George Floyd was not resisting arrest and his death was the result of officers not following department guidelines and not doing their job.

7. I've worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of our four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys to fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process. This is where my problem with the unions comes in. Without due process? What more do you need? There is literally video evidence of a guy being murdered by cops and you want to fight for their jobs? Read the room. This is not a position you want to take.

Last, I want to talk about Bob Kroll. A few bullet points.

-20 IAD complaints, 3 resulting in discipline 

-2003 demoted for ethical violations

-2007 defendant in racial discrimination lawsuit

I am not a genius, but I think this guy is probably not a good choice for head of union and he proved it with this brain dead attempt at a letter. Stay safe, don't watch the news, wash your hands, and listen to the CDC because we need sports back in a big way.