Cleveland has never produced a shortage of up-and-down news. But the politically stupid and incendiary endorsement of Donald Trump by the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association ranks as a stop-the-presses assault on continuing efforts to dissolve the division between the badges and minorities.
Quite the contrary: It has only made matters worse since President Steve Loomis of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association announced the incredible move. When protests erupted, Loomis took the next poisonous (vindictive?) step by calling such critics as Black Lives Matter, Black Shield Association, NAACP, the mayor and council nothing more than hypocrites for criticizing his right of free speech while expressing their own opposition. Good luck on that, Mr. Loomis. As an arm of the law, you might want to consider how you might rise above the public discourse.
“It was disgusting,” declared Tim Hagan, long active in Democratic politics and former gubernatorial candidate. ‘“It’s dividing people when there are a lot of honorable policemen trying to do their job every day.”
There have been reports that Loomis has a good friend in Trump and that the two have been meeting regularly. One can only guess what might have been discussed. But beyond the street level politics, why would a police union president take chances as a public employee whose outreach to the community occasionally must appeal to the voters for taxpayer money, many of whom might now be driven to vote no.
Did I say stupid. I just said it again. Free speech, you know.
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