An umbrella group for Washington, D.C., police unions is holding its holiday party at Donald Trump’s hotel—but while that is a very police union thing to do, the delightful twist is that three of the police unions that belong to the District’s Fraternal Order of Police lodge are really, really unhappy about it. The leaders of unions for the U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police, and the District’s juvenile correctional facilities strongly criticized the decision, The Washington Post reports.
The Park Police union’s Michael Shalton pointed back to last year’s Christmas season and Trump’s government shutdown. “We went six weeks without a paycheck because of this administration, and you want us to have a Christmas party there? Come on. There’s a lot of bad blood.”
”I’m pretty sure a lot of our officers probably aren’t going to go. I’d be shocked if anybody goes,” said Gus Papathanasiou, chair of the U.S. Capitol Police Officers union. Both Papathanasiou and Shalton also pointed to the expense of attending the event. Tickets will cost $175 per couple, where in past years the FOP lodge building has hosted the party and tickets have been $35.
”We can’t sell this to our people,” said Andre Phillips, the head of the 98% black union for D.C.’s youth correctional officers. “Why should we have to align ourselves with that individual—with the president—when all our political views are different?”
These union leaders appear to know what they’re talking about when they characterize their members’ responses. The Washington Post viewed a private Facebook group for D.C. police on which many rank-and-file officers were writing things like “Only time I’m going there is when I’m getting paid.”