'The Silence Here Is Deafening': Police Federation's Response To Latest OIS Atypical
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- While many questions remain we do know there is a striking difference in the way the Minneapolis Police Federation is responding to this shooting.
WCCO-TV went back 10 years and found, in every controversial case we covered, the Federation offered a strong and speedy defense of its officers.
That is not the case in the shooting death of Justine Damond.
The Federation has declined to comment publicly and said they plan to wait until after the investigation is completed to make a statement.
While most people are not willing to say this publicly but privately sources are telling us that this can only mean one thing: that the shooting death of Justine Damond by a Minneapolis officer is even being questioned by his fellow officers.
The silence from the Minneapolis Police Federation in the shooting death of Justine Damond is in sharp contrast to other controversial cases.
Take the shooting of two dogs by a Minneapolis Police officer just 10 days ago. The video of the shooting went viral on Facebook resulting in overwhelming public criticism of how the officer handled the situation. Just days later the Federation issued a statement saying the Federation "fully supports the Officer's actions" and criticized the public for "Monday morning quarterbacking," adding "In this line of work, Officers need to adapt and react to situations in the blink of an eye."
The attorney who represents the dogs' owner says the silence of the Federation in the Damond case is striking.
"The silence here is deafening, I think it's very telling. Normally they are much more upfront," Michael Padden said.
Padden says the Minneapolis Federation is known for its swift and outspoken defense of it members. Just days after the 2015 Minneapolis police shooting of Jamar Clark, Federation President Lt. Bob Kroll defended the officers, predicting their use of force would be legally justified.
"While being legally detained he (Jamar Clark) chose to resist, fight officers and seize control of an officer's firearm," Kroll said in November of 2015.
Again the Federation saying it will not make any statement until the investigation in the case is complete and that will take weeks, if not months.
In the case of Jamar Clark, it was four and a half months after the shooting when the County Attorney announced that the officers in that case were justified in their use of deadly force
