Minneapolis Police Union President Allegedly Wore a "White Power Patch" and Made Racist Remarks

[RandySF]

Through a series of controversies over the years, Kroll has been a staunch defender of the police. In 2015, after two white officers shot 24-year-old Jamar Clark in the head, Kroll spoke on television about Clark’s “violent” criminal history; later, when the officers were cleared of wrongdoing, he referred to Black Lives Matter as a “terrorist organization,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

In 2007, Kroll also referred to former US Rep. Keith Ellison, who is Muslim and Black and has pushed for criminal justice reforms, as a terrorist, according to a lawsuit filed by now–Police Chief Medaria Arradondo alleging racism within the police department. The lawsuit accused Kroll of wearing a motorcycle jacket with a white-power patch sewed into the fabric, and said he had “a history of discriminatory attitudes and conduct.” He has told reporters he was part of the City Heat motorcycle club, some of whose members have been described by the Anti-Defamation League as displaying white supremacist symbols. Kroll did not respond to a request for comment but has denied the allegations in the past.

A year after Clark’s death, in 2016, Kroll again showed his disdain for protests about racial inequality. That December, four off-duty officers walked off their job working security at the Lynx basketball game after the players denounced racial profiling at a press conference and wore Black Lives Matter warmup jerseys before the game. “I commend them for it,” Kroll said of the officers.

Kroll joined the Minneapolis police department back in 1989. According to a Star Tribune investigation, he has been the subject of at least 20 internal-affairs complaints during his three decades there, though all but three were closed without discipline. As a young officer in 1994, he was suspended for five days for excessive force, according to a report by City Pages, but that decision was later reversed by the police chief. The next year, he fought a lawsuit that accused him of “beating, choking and kicking” a biracial 15-year-old boy while saying racial slurs, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported, but a federal jury cleared him of wrongdoing. In 2003, the department demoted him for three months for “code of ethics” violations.




https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2020/05/minneapolis-police-union-president-kroll-george-floyd-racism/

[dalton99a]

1. Kroll was behind this:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Kroll is one of the major roadblocks in any kind of reform

of the MPD. He not only doesn't care that there are racist cops and bad policies, he actively encourages them. He should have been fired years ago.

[frazzled]

3. Wash, rinse, repeat

The police unions have been a major stumbling block in achieving reforms in other cities, as was certainly the case here in Chicago in adjudicating the Laquan Macdonald case. And now look who is the newly elected (just a few weeks ago) union leader for the Chicago Police Department:

Despite a controversial past and a place among the most frequently disciplined officers, the new head of Chicago’s police union said he’s ready to take the organization in a “new direction” following his election victory. ...

The FOP last week announced that Catanzara had defeated one-term incumbent Kevin Graham in a runoff election, earning 55% of the vote. ...Catanzara appeared Sunday on Fox News following his runoff victory, where he acknowledged that while he has detractors within his own union. But he said his job is to “convert the detractors and get them to understand that this is what’s needed in this time and date.”

After that appearance, President Donald Trump tweeted a message of congratulations to the new union head, saying he always “gets the job done.”

Catanzara was reprimanded in 2017 for violating a rule that prohibits on-duty officers from political activity when he posted pictures of himself in uniform carrying a sign in support of Trump, the Second Amendment and the American flag.

In his 25 years on the force, Catanzara has received no major awards, but six honorable mentions – more than 55% of officers. But according to the Citizens Police Data Project, he has also been the subject of 50 allegations – more than 96% of Chicago police officers.

Catanzara is currently on administrative duty after being stripped of his police powers following a police report he filed against Eddie Johnson when the former superintendent took part in an unsanctioned anti-violence protest in July 2018 that closed down the Dan Ryan Expressway.

https://news.wttw.com/2020/05/14/chicago-police-union-president-john-catanzara-defends-record

Mayors and police chiefs tend to take a lot of heat for the actions and slow reprimanding or prosecution of rogue officers, but it is often the very conservative unions who are the fundamental obstacles in these instances.

[dalton99a]

6. +1.

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, Kroll also supports an openly racist leader in Donald Trump

[CurtEastPoint]

5. To wit:

[MineralMan]

7. Worst Cop in the MPD, by Far!

He's been gumming up the works for years. He hated the last Chief, a lesbian woman, and hates the current one, a black man, as well. He works very hard to undermine their leadership on a daily basis.

Worst of all, it is almost impossible to fire him.

[judeling]

8. You see how hard actual change is?

Arradondo knows exactly where the problems are, he came up through the ranks. He cannot just fire him without cause.

Remember, Arradondo called the FBI and the State in as soon as he heard about the incident that night. He was only able to fire the officers after the videos emerged (the next day), with the clear indications of cause.

This is true across the country.

On top of that is the near impossibility of actually hiring a diverse force. Minneapolis has actually been pretty good at that just nowhere near enough. Saint Paul who lags a bit behind Minneapolis have starting the recruiting efforts in Middle School.