The most mystifying aspect of the Tamir Rice case is that the Cleveland Police Patrolman Union is pulling out all the stops to defend Tim Loehmann, the officer who killed Rice. Never mind that Loehmann opened fire only 1.5 seconds after he arrived on the scene. And never mind that when the Cleveland Police Department hired Loehmann, it ignored evidence that screamed in capital letters that Loehmann should have never had a badge in the first place.
Alternet’s Steven Rosenfeld thinks he’s found part of the problem–a good idea that has gone horribly wrong. For over a century, many police departments were heavily influenced by patronage–and the inevitable corruption that ensued from it. Believe it or not, it didn’t take years of cops being on the payroll of mobsters to bring the problem to a head. It was a report from a presidential commission that found most of the worst abuses during the civil rights movement came from Southern police departments that were infected with good ol’ boyism run amok.
Soon afterwards, policemen across the country organized in police unions. These unions were able to negotiate collective bargaining agreements that, for the most part, made police departments more professional. Instead of the “at-will” rule that had long been in place in most jurisdictions, cops now had the right to due process, and could take employment decisions to binding arbitration as a last resort. However, there is a long list of cops who have been fired for violent behavior–only to have the union rise to their defense and persuade an arbitrator to overturn the firing. As a result, cops who have absolutely no business having a badge and gun get their jobs back as if nothing happened.
Take the case of Philadelphia police lieutenant Jonathan Josey. In 2012, he was fired for punching a woman in the face after mistakenly believing she’d thrown beer at him during a Puerto Rican Day parade. Video shows Josey taking six steps in the woman’s direction before punching her. And yet, after the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police pushed for his reinstatement, an arbitrator gave Josey his job back–with full benefits and back pay. Granted, Josey was acquitted in a bench trial. But the standard of fitness to be an officer is a much higher bar to clear than the one below which you go to jail–and Josey’s actions fell short of that standard by any definition.
I know that the inevitable comparisons will be drawn to teachers’ unions making it difficult to fire bad teachers. But there is certain behavior that no responsible union should defend. I learned that from my father, who worked as a union official representing Charlotte’s city bus drivers for three decades. Can you imagine a teachers’ union fighting to reinstate a teacher who was caught red-handed encouraging bullying? That would never happen because in this day and age, the public would never stand for it.
Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic thinks that we need to at least consider going back to at-will employment for police officers, since it would supposedly be “the standard that would best protect the public.” I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Not only would it unduly punish the majority of officers who live up to the ideal of “protect and serve,” but it wouldn’t do anything to change the culture that makes it possible for police unions to defend such outrageous behavior. Friedersdorf, however, has one good idea–make arbitration decisions “transparent and fully reviewable.” If union officials knew that the public could see the kind of things they were defending, they would think twice about defending the Loehmanns and Joseys.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
