Front-line critics slam Liz over cop tweet
Bay State police say candidate is ‘pandering’
Police officers are slamming U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for “political pandering” they say could get cops and citizens “hurt and killed” in the second round of criticism this week from law enforcement over a tweet the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate posted.
The Massachusetts Coalition of Police has written an open letter to the Massachusetts senior senator saying her “inflammatory rhetoric” makes the already dangerous job of policing even more perilous. The group represents about 4,500 police officers serving in more than 157 cities and towns in Massachusetts.
“Your political pandering for presidential votes is getting police officers and citizens hurt and killed,” wrote coalition president Scott Hovsepian, who is a patrolman in Waltham. “Your inflammatory rhetoric results in the erosion of relationships that members of law enforcement have developed within our communities.”
On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association wrote to Warren saying her Friday tweet that black teen Michael Brown of Ferguson, Mo., was “murdered by a white police officer” is “appalling.”
Warren’s tweet came on the five-year anniversary of Brown’s shooting. The unarmed 18-year-old’s shooting by a police officer was ruled an act of “self-defense” by the U.S. Department of Justice. The shooting led to weeks of rioting and protest and eventually prompted thenPresident Barack Obama to address the nation about race.
Last summer, both Massachusetts police groups criticized Warren after she accused the entire justice system of being “racist … front to back.”
Hovsepian said he offered to work with Warren last summer, but her latest tweet shows she’s just out for votes, he added.
“This is so absurd,” Hovsepian told the Herald Wednesday. “We represent 4,500 men and women who put on a (bulletproof) vest every day and to call us racist or storm-troopers, I can’t accept that.”
He said officers across the state went to work with “broken hearts” after the deaths of Sgt. Sean Gannon, 32, killed in Barnstable in April 2018 while trying to serve an arrest warrant on a career criminal, and Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, killed in the line of duty while chasing down a suspect.
Hovsepian accused Warren — who is now polling in second and third place in the primary race — of chasing votes.
“She’s targeting a small portion of the population feeling they will help put her over the edge to become president,” Hovsepian said. “I wish she had contacted us or focused on the good things she’s done, like going after Wall Street.”
A spokeswoman for Warren did not respond to Herald requests for comment.