The entire SWAT team of a town in Florida has resigned from that team, but not the police force, in disgust over the police chief kneeling with protesters.
Here’s what happened:
The team members told Police Chief Sonia Quiñones that the last straw was when members of the Command Staff took a knee in solidarity, WPLG reported.
“Having members of the Command Staff taking a knee in solidarity with Vice Mayor Sabrina Javellana … this lack of support is crippling,” the memo said. “The risk of carrying out our duties is no longer acceptable to us and our families.”
Team members also wrote that Javellena “has shown that she takes pleasure in besmirching the hard work and dedication of the members of this professional agency, having the gall to compare us to the Minneapolis Police Department.”
Javellana told the Sun-Sentinel she was shocked to learn about the letter while she was grocery shopping on Friday night. But she said she does not regret attending the protest.
Now I think most of the headlines are sticking with the kneeling angle, but there’s a more important angle here about why they quit. They specifically talk about the efforts of the vice mayor to reopen a closed case against cops and the botched SWAT raid in 2014 that led to the killing of an unarmed black man. That is the real issue, although the police chief says she did not kneel because of the cause of the vice mayor, that’s what the cops believe this is all leading to.
So there you go, it’s all nutty and complex. Like everything else these days!
