Police group knocks calls to defund police on anniversary of Floyd death

A top police lobbying group slammed calls to defund the police on Tuesday as criminal justice reform advocates and others marked the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd in police custody.

The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which describes itself as the world’s largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers, blasted calls to defund the police in multiple tweets.

Joe Gamaldi, the group’s national vice president, labeled the rallying cry as “not a rational, nor reasonable policy position,” asserting murders are skyrocketing in cities that are “foolish enough to try” defunding the police.

Defund the police is not a rational, nor reasonable policy position. Murders surging in every city who was foolish enough to try.

Anyone who continues to bluster on this…answer the real question of whether you care about your community or just want to score political points?

— Joe Gamaldi (@JoeGamaldi) May 25, 2021

The FOP’s official Twitter account sounded a similar note, sharing a photo of “skyrocketing murder rates” in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The increases in murder rates ranged from 22 percent to as high as 800 percent in the group’s graphic.

“Any guesses of what these cities have in common?” the organization asked, before noting that they have all “turned the keys over to the ‘Defund the Police’ mob.”

Any guesses of what these cities have in common?

In addition to having some elected officials that don’t do their jobs, the leadership in all of these cities turned the keys over to the “Defund the Police” mob. pic.twitter.com/rF5QLskXqE

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) May 25, 2021

Floyd died after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes at a traffic stop last year. A jury found Chauvin guilty of all three charges against him in the murder of Floyd last month.

Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests centered on racial equality, with some demonstrators adopting the “defund the police” slogan while calling for widespread changes to police tactics and overall funding.

The FOP’s comments pushing back on calls to reform police funding came as members of Floyd’s family met with President Biden at the White House on Tuesday.

Floyd’s family is in D.C. on the anniversary of his death to call on lawmakers to pass police reform legislation named in his honor.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed the House in March but has stalled in the Senate amid disagreement over the issue of qualified immunity.

The doctrine protects state and local government officials, including law enforcement, from liability in civil suits unless they violate a person’s clearly established constitutional right, and Republicans want to keep the legal principle intact. 

The top negotiators of the legislation reported on Monday that they “remain optimistic” about the prospect of reaching a compromise on a bill.

When asked in a Fox News interview Saturday if removing the qualified immunity doctrine would deter people from wanting to become a police officer, Gamaldi said “it would certainly impact officers wanting to take this job.”

“I believe that there’s reasonable compromises that can be made to make sure that we all move forward on a path where we want to reduce officer-involved shootings in this country. It’s the goal that everybody wants to reach,” Gamaldi said.

He emphasized, however, the need to discuss “the actions of the other individual on that scene with that officer,” because they “ultimately determine how much force an officer may or may not use.”

“And if we don’t address that, we’re going to be caught in this perpetual doom cycle we find ourselves in,” Gamaldi said.

We are seeing violent crime skyrocket in many of the same cities that decided to “Defund” the Police.@JoeGamaldi: “We, as a society, need to stop pretending that defunding the police is a rational policy position to have… ‘Defund the Police’ is a complete loser.” pic.twitter.com/735L08uLkw

— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) May 24, 2021

Gamaldi said that “morale has never been worse in policing than it is right now” and “we’re in the middle of a perfect storm, and we’re not going to find anybody to take these jobs anymore.”

“I mean it is complete insanity to keep talking about defunding the police, but that’s where we are nowadays in this country where apparently two plus two equals five,” he added in the Fox interview.

The police group executive’s comments came on the eve of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announcing that he would sign legislation making it more difficult for cities to defund the police.