The man in the “Cops for Trump” T-shirt is Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis. At this Target Center Rally (October 2019), Trump introduced Kroll in this way:
Trump, in introducing Kroll, said that he had first seen “the great gentleman on television, pouring out his heart, pouring out his guts” while standing up to the city’s liberal establishment.
www.startribune.com/…
Actually, that is not the half of it. Here are few ways that Kroll has “stood up to the liberal establishment”:
In 2007 Kroll was named in a lawsuit four black police officers — including the current chief — brought against the Minneapolis Police Department for discrimination.
As examples of Kroll's prejudicial treatment, the complaint said Kroll openly wore a "white power" patch sewn into his motorcycle jacket. Kroll is reportedly a member of the City Heat Motorcycle Club, which has been cited by the Anti-Defamation League for its white power connections.
The lawsuit also said Kroll referred to black and Muslim US Rep. Keith Ellison as "a terrorist" in the presence of other officers.
The city eventually settled the lawsuit for $740,000.
In 2015, when Minneapolis officers Dustin Schwarze and Mark Ringgenberg, came under fire for the shooting death of 24-year-old Jamar Clark, Kroll aggressively supported the officers, calling Black Lives Matters, a movement that, among other things, protests police brutality against black men and women, a "terrorist organization."
Kroll wore a white power symbol
Regarding that motorcycle jacket, Kroll is a member of a bikers’ club that has long been regarded as a haven for white supremacists: www.alternet.org/….
And what about he unapproved knee choke that Chauvin used to kill George Floyd? That maneuver is a technique from the warrior training program, banned by the city of Minneapolis in 2019, that Kroll avidly defended as being necessary for cops to survive.
While an investigation is underway over the use of the chokehold in Floyd’s death, it’s worth taking a look at the “warrior-style” police training that for years had been popular with the city’s top police union. For the unfamiliar, the training, as we reported in 2017, generally espouses a “killology” vision of law enforcement that’s frequently likened to “fear porn.” Experts say the training, which has been linked to high profile police-related killings around the country, including Philando Castille’s 2016 shooting death, also in Minnesota, often runs the risk of the use of unnecessary, and sometimes, fatal force.
Citing the “killology” mentality, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey ultimately banned the training last year but the move infuriated Minneapolis Police Union President Lt. Bob Kroll. Shortly after the decision was announced, Kroll called the ban illegal and said that the union would continue to make the training available to any interested officers. “It’s not about killing, it’s about surviving,” Kroll said at the time.
Kroll continues warrior police training
This discussion is all context setting for this tweet thread which is going viral. It is a report from the ground, and in all honesty, it is hard to verify, at this point, how much of this explanation is correct but it sure as hell fits the pattern (and the tweeters’ point that Minneapolis police officers are far more loyal to Kroll than the mayor is a recurrent theme expressed among citizen-journalist reporting on these events):
Minneapolis police do NOT appear to be under the command or control, of our mayor or our excellent police chief. So it seems like a lot of cops have apparently decided to stop doing their jobs until their notorious union chief, Bob Kroll, tells them to go back to work. 2/
Ever since George Floyd was murdered, the police response to peaceful protests has been to:
1) wildly escalate the situation with tear gas and rubber bullets;
2) watch as looters---a very different group than the protesters- move in;
3) Vanish and let the chaos reigns. 3/
Their strategy seems to be: "Either we get to kill Black men when we feel like it with no criticism from you people........or you don't get any law enforcement it all. Nice little city you got there, pity if something happens to it? Do you miss us yet?" 4/
For context, the Minneapolis police force is overwhelmingly white and male. Ninety-two percent of them live in the suburbs--often the far suburbs. Their union chief, Bob Kroll, is a huge Trump supporter and open white supremacist. 5/
In short, a big subset of our police department looks (and acts) like they were recruited directly from a Trump rally. They literally seem to hate this progressive city and most of our residents. And they especially hate Black people. 6/
We all live in our own little bubble. The police have been killing unarmed Black men in Minneapolis for years and getting away with it Their first account of George Floyd's death was to announce that he had a "medical" issue while being arrested and alas, died. 7/
The police didn't mention the whole knee-on-neck thingy. So they seemed caught off-guard by the cell-phone video and then the public response to it. They were furious that the four officers involved with killing George Floyd were immediately fired because this rarely happens. 8/
The police were furious that they were being directly criticized by the mayor and governor (both Democrats), which rarely happens. They've been furious at the protests. So the cops have sort of gone on strike here. 9/
With the police openly refusing to do their jobs, they have basically invited the criminals to break into anything they want. It's a very cynical move to change the discussion away from police misconduct to the need for cops to come in and break heads and have law and order. 10/
Hence, lots of businesses are putting up plywood. What else are they supposed to do? The Minneapolis police have basically invited criminals to "have at us."
It's really bad and a little scary. We're being policed by a force with cold contempt for the city and its people. 11/
The arrest of the Derek Chauvin, the cop who kneeled on George Floyd's neck, is a good first step. But it's only a baby step. We need to fire a lot of police officers in order to create a policing model that actually works to protect the city residents. 12/
Creating a truly effective and very different police force will be a long, hard slog of a task. Our local politicians are going to need a lot of support and wind at their sails if they attempt it. Let's begin.