AFT Leader to Police Unions: Can't Ignore Blacks Being Abused
Outrage over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes has prompted some unions to demand changes regarding those representing cops, from the Minnesota chapter of the AFL-CIO demanding that the belligerent leader of that city's police union step down to a petition by the Writers Guild of America-East urging the AFL-CIO to expel its police division.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is promoting a softer form of persuasion: she wants police unions to acknowledge the systemic racism that has led to the deaths of unarmed black people at the hands of cops—most of them white—and change contract language that makes it more difficult to get rid of those officers.
Won't Part the Waters
That doesn't mean her request will be welcomed by most police unions, which argue that their vigorous representation of officers accused of excessive force is no different than Teachers unions aggressively standing up for pedagogues facing criminal or internal charges in controversial cases, A spokesman for Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said that in fact he is prohibited from negotiating some of the disciplinary protections available to officers in other cities.
For example, in Minneapolis officers who are fired by their department for misconduct are entitled to appeal to an arbitrator, and after Mr. Floyd's killing it was reported that more than a dozen officers had gained reinstatement using that last resort. NYPD officers convicted in departmental trials don't have CONTINUE READING: AFT Leader to Police Unions: Can't Ignore Blacks Being Abused | News of the Week | thechiefleader.com
