Throngs of high-powered Republicans have come out against Donald Trump’s presidential bid, including both President Bushes. Trump has become aligned with the most divisive, most extreme, most conservative wing of the Republican Party, his name a rallying point for those who revere the American flag yet recoil at the rights and liberties it promises for all Americans.
Yet the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, the local police union, has decided to back Trump. At a time when a national spotlight is deservedly on police-community relations, the FOP endorsement is a slap in the face — quite likely a pointed one — to the Black Lives Matter movement, its supporters and allies and all who advocate for needed law-enforcement reforms. Not to mention to LGBT people, Muslims, Latinx people and the whole host of communities Trump has degraded.
The reasoning for the endorsement provided by the Philly FOP is hollow: Essentially, Trump filled out a questionnaire and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton did not.
“Simple as that, we went in and we participated with the candidate that cooperated. He filled it out,” FOP president John McNesby told 1210 WPHT.
With the national tenor what it is — there were at least two more high-profile killings of black men by police in the past week — the FOP didn’t think it should perhaps be a bit more deliberative and thoughtful in its endorsement process? McNesby also suggested the local union wanted to fall in line with the national FOP, which also backed Trump.
Both seem like sorry excuses to back a man who prides himself on dividing Americans at a time when law-enforcement agencies should be working to heal divides.
It’s important to note, however, that the local FOP endorsement doesn’t represent the viewpoints of all police officers. Scores have spoken out against it, including the president of the organization for LGBT officers.
Yet the endorsement sent a damaging message to the community. It said to Black Lives Matter supporters that officers are not willing to listen to their concerns. It said to people of diverse races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations and gender identities that their differences aren’t valued or celebrated by law enforcement. It said to the city at large that the people entrusted to protect us support hate.
None of those messages is, indeed, universally accurate, but that nuance will likely not be considered by the gay youth afraid to call police when he’s been victimized, the black man hesitating to reach for his wallet or the trans woman questioning whether she should fill out a cadet application form. With this endorsement, the FOP set back the clock on progress, which, considering how far the local law-enforcement community has come particularly on LGBT issues in recent years, is a real shame.