Mike O’Meara, head of New York City’s police union, teed off on reporters and politicians yesterday in a fiery two and a half minute speech, in front of a large group of officers. It is worth your time:
375 million interactions with the public every year. 375 million interactions — overwhelmingly positive responses. Overwhelmingly positive responses. But I read in the papers all week, we all read in the papers, that in the black community, mothers are worried about their children getting home from school without being killed by a cop. What world are we living in?! That doesn’t happen! It does not happen!
I am not Derek Chauvin. They are not him. He killed someone. We didn’t.
Everybody’s trying to shame us. The legislators. The press. Everybody’s trying to shame us into being embarrassed about our profession … stop treating us like animals and thugs, and start treating us with some respect.
We’ve been left out of the conversation, we’ve been vilified. It’s disgusting!
