In the days following Donald Trump’s apparent advocacy of police brutality to a crowd of police officers at Suffolk Community College on Long Island, a number of police chiefs across the country have issued statements condemning the idea that it’s “OK” to rough up arrestees.
One of the most shared public comments came from Gainesville, Florida police department spokesman Ben Tobias who said that those who applauded Trump’s comments “should be ashamed.”
I’m a cop.
I do not agree with or condone @POTUS remarks today on police brutality.
Those that applauded and cheered should be ashamed.
— Ben Tobias (@GPDBenTobias) July 28, 2017
Like other leaders, Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole released a statement on community trust on Friday evening. But unlike other police chiefs, O’Toole’s statement didn’t call out the president specifically. O’Toole also used the opportunity to criticize the left as well as the right.
“Seattle’s police officers have embraced reform and have worked incredibly hard to build community trust,” O’Toole’s comment, posted to the SPD Blotter, reads. “We do not intend to go backwards. It is truly unfortunate that in today’s toxic environment, politicians at both ends of the spectrum have sought to inflame passions by politicizing what we do. We remain committed to our principles and reject irresponsible statements that threaten to undermine our relationship with the community.”
Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, chair of the council’s civil rights committee, told The Stranger that she contacted O’Toole over the weekend asking her to put out a statement in response to Trump’s comments.
“She responded that she’d already done so,” Herbold told The Stranger. “I then responded that I’d look for it on the SPD page and push it out on my own FB page. Once I found Chief O’Toole’s statement, I chose not to post he statement because I didn’t understand the reference to ‘politicians at both ends of the spectrum’ as it related to the specific remarks made at the Suffolk Community College in Long Island.”
Lisa Daugaard, director of the Public Defender Association and a member of the Community Police Commission, also said that she hoped police leadership wasn’t equating concern about police conduct with the president’s comments.
Daugaard said (emphasis mine):
It’s understandable that Chief O’Toole would feel protective of the excellent work of many officers. I’ve had heart to hearts with officers I deeply respect and heard how bad it feels to be assumed to be in the wrong when they are dealing daily, and well, with some of the most difficult problems in our society. However, I hope that officers and police leadership don’t equate legitimate concern about problematic police conduct with the gross embrace of the worst of policing history that we heard from the President. The criticism can be uncomfortable and can be hard to hear, but it comes from pain and loss and an unquestionably valid recognition that policing has to change. The rightwing cheerleading for brutality, on the other hand, does a huge disservice to those who police with integrity.
This isn’t the first time O’Toole’s choice of words has drawn critique. When former Stranger writer Ansel Herz asked O’Toole in 2014 if she, like police chief Chris Magnus of Richmond, California, would feel comfortable holding a Black Lives Matter sign, she said she didn’t think it would be appropriate.
“We all make personal decisions on how best to demonstrate our values and express our opinions,” O’Toole told Herz. “I believe I’ve made it very clear in my words and actions over the course of 30+ years that ALL lives matter equally, including black lives. I’ve been a champion for civil rights for decades and will continue to be. I’ve done so by engaging with people personally, eye to eye on human level.”
