Police chief defends officers, skewers critics and media coverage

With some of his cops facing criticism and one charged criminally for actions to quell protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Fort Lauderdale Chief of Police Rick Maglione put out a July 4 general defense of law enforcement and criticized media coverage of the protests.

“The events of the past month have been damaging to the relationships between law enforcement and the community and there is no better day to address it than today,” Maglione said.

Maglione started by pointing a finger at the media, which he felt showed an unfairly edited video of his officers laughing and joking about shooting protesters with rubber bullets.

“Law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly vilified and it is putting your police officers in harm’s way unjustly,” he wrote.

“There has been irresponsible reporting with haste being the priority, while accuracy and objectivity have taken a back seat,” he continued. “Police officers have become the victims of politics and on occasion, the victims of unprovoked violent attacks. These attacks, for some unknown reason, receive little attention.”

The caught-on-video May death of Black man George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked a re-examination of police treatment of Black citizens; the role of law enforcement in society; and whether police departments need to be given fewer funds and functions.

The death of Floyd as well as that of Louisville’s Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician shot during a no-knock raid, ignited anger in the Black community, leading to daily protests around the nation. After a May 31 protest, Fort Lauderdale police were:

Questioned about shooting protester LaToya Ratlieff in an eye with a foam rubber bullet as Ratlieff tried to calm protesters. Last week, after talking to the

U.S. House Subcommittee on

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Ratlieff said she still has vision problems out of her right eye.

Shown in the aforementioned body camera video following rubber bullet shots with “Beat it, little f***er” and “Did you see me f**k up those motherf **** rs?”

Additionally, one officer was charged with battery on a protester after video showed Steven Pohorence shoving a kneeling woman to the ground.

“Misconduct involves intent and requires discipline, and on occasion prosecution; the same as it applies to everyone in society,” Maglione wrote. “Mistakes require understanding, leniency, training, and an apology with an effort to do better moving forward.”

Though he didn’t refer to the “Beat it, little f**cker” video directly, Maglione clearly referred to that when he admitted that “inappropriate language is occasionally exchanged between colleagues just as it is in the meeting room, at the job site or around the water cooler at your places of employment.

“Police officers see things daily throughout their careers that no human being should have to see. It affects us, but we are committed to working through it. We also understand you are always looking for us to improve and we are.”

Maglione’s statement drew general dismissal from District 101 State Rep. Shevrin Jones.

Blaming recent events for rending the police-community relationship ignores a long-present divide, Jones said, in response to Maglione’s statement. And, in this situation, Jones said, trust and respect must be given to be received:

“It is my hope that as we move forward in building better relationships, that police departments will have internal ‘come-to-Jesus meetings’ to deal with their internal demons, so they can get the public trust that they are looking for, and the trust from the community that I am praying for.”