After publicly supporting Donald Trump’s run for Commander in Chief and endorsing a Hillary Clinton-hating deputy for the role of national president, Washington D.C.’s largest and most important police organization announced that the organization’s ticket prices for the annual Christmas party would triple this year, so it could hold the shindig at a very special location:
Trump International Hotel.
On Dec. 7, the Fraternal Order of Police D.C. Lodge #1 will host its annual Christmas Holiday party at Donald Trump’s posh D.C. hotel. Entry will cost a mere $100 for individuals and $175 for couples, a stark rise in prices compared to the $30 the group charged for its 2018 celebration held in the luxurious confines of the Fraternal Order of Police D.C. Lodge, the location for the past 10 years, the Washington Post reports. Plus, if one prefers to get white-cop wasted, don’t worry, the FOP has generously negotiated a discount rate on rooms for those who want to relax in comfort after a busy year of stopping and frisking black people.
D.C.’s black police officers are pissed off about it.
According to the latest data, the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is 52 percent black and 36 percent white but the leadership of the D.C. chapter of the FOP is mostly white, representing about 11,000 members, according to the lodge’s website. Although there are several police unions representing officers in the city, the Fraternal Order of Police is considered to be the “umbrella organization” for all law enforcement personnel, including correctional officers, federal agents, state police and local law enforcement officers. Among other things, it uses its members’ dues to lobby lawmakers to gain support for anti-black police tactics including anti-protest bills, racial profiling and banning people from entering the U.S. who hail from “terrorist-prone countries.”
One D.C. MPD officer who spoke with The Root on the condition of anonymity called the decision a “slap in the face to the officers and the people of the District,” noting that the party wasn’t announced until after the local and national elections that saw Louisiana Sheriff’s deputy Patrick Yoes ascend to the national FOP presidency, much to the delight of Donald Trump.
“It’s basically white people making the decision for black officers and handing our money to someone who hates us,” the MPD detective told The Root. “It’s not just the black police officers. A lot of the white officers have a problem with this, too.”
The Washington Post writes:
At the union that represents D.C.’s youth correctional officers, chairman Andre Phillips said his members were stunned by the choice. He estimated that 98 percent of them are black, and many work closely with youths from low-income parts of the District.
He said that his members were strongly opposed to Trump’s politics, believing that the president has made life worse for the people they serve.
“We can’t sell this to our people,” Phillips said. “Why should we have to align ourselves with that individual—with the president—when all our political views are different?”
At the union for D.C. police, the largest in the city, chairman Stephen Bigelow Jr. declined to comment—other than to say some of his members won’t attend because of the location.
While this might seem like a simple conflict of interest, others have noted that Chuck Canterbury—the Fraternal Order of Police’s outgoing president who said violence against police should be a hate crime and that the protests in Ferguson, Mo., were about “poverty, not racism”—was recently nominated by Trump to lead the nation’s Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The organization also endorsed Trump for president in 2016—and although the new FOP president (who was endorsed by the D.C. Lodge) hasn’t explicitly said he voted for Trump, he has numerous social media posts expressing his wish that he could lock Hillary Clinton up as if she were...well…a black man in Louisiana.
So, maybe this wasn’t a quid pro quo. Handing thousands of dollars over to the President for the last Christmas before the 2020 election isn’t technically a campaign donation. Maybe they just wanna party like it’s 1799.
“When one bad cop does something, it reflects on all of us,” explained the police officer. “And this makes us look like we all support having a racist in the White House.”