Police union chief who excuses white killer cops now says it’s trans people’s fault he’s not getting a raise this year
US president Donald Trump shakes hands with Minneapolis Police Union head Bob Kroll on stage during a campaign rally at the Target Center on October 10, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty)
The chief of the Minneapolis police union has blamed trans people for the city’s budget problems during the coronavirus pandemic, and said they’re the reason he won’t get his raise.
Lieutenant and Trump-supporter Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, has recently been slammed for defending the four officers involved in the killing of George Floyd.
Police officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin Floyd to the ground by his neck until he went limp.
The 46-year-old, who was unarmed, can be heard a widely-shared video gasping “please, I can’t breathe”, and “don’t kill me”, before he passed away.
As of Thursday, June 4, Chauvin is facing a second-degree murder charge, and the three other officers involved face counts of aiding and abetting murder.
Kroll wrote a letter to union members, obtained by the Star Tribune, in which he said: “What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this.
“I’ve worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of our four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys to fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process.”
Kroll said that protesters against police brutality were a “terrorist movement”, and added: “The politicians are to blame and you are the scapegoats.”
As if his defence of deadly racism by police officers was not enough, now Kroll has decided that trans people are the reason he won’t get a raise.
Minneapolis has asked police and other unionised workers to pass on raises this year, as the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically impacted the city’s budget.
But in an interview with STIM radio host Maxwell Thomas Silverhammer, Kroll said that the the budget issues could be blamed on the city “p**sing away money” by helping trans people access city services.
He said: “The first thing we said was OK, let’s see the budget, let’s see the city budget. And guys they’re p**sing away, millions and millions of dollars to projects, like, you know, they’re giving $15,000 a year to the transgender coordinator of the city.”
According to LGBTQ Nation, the city’s budget is around $1.5 billion.
