Will police unions put knee on neck of police reforms?

“If any of us had been there, that man would still be alive.”

To Florida Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian, “us” are him and like-minded cops. “That man” is George Floyd.

With calls everywhere for overdue reform of policing, attention falls again on police unions. They have generally opposed reforms and are a political force in Florida and most states. In 2018, Kazanjian recorded robocalls for Gov. DeSantis.

Kazanjian agrees that Derek Chauvin should not have rammed his knee into Floyd’s neck. He is similarly angry, though, at the three officers who watched Floyd die.

“But, hey, I was in the Marines,” Kazanjian said in an interview. “You do what your FTO (field training officer) says.” Two of the officers only recently had completed probation. To be fully qualified in the Minneapolis Police Department, new officers must spend time in the field with a senior colleague.

In taking the correct stand on Floyd’s murder, however, Kazanjian underscores the need for changing not just procedures, but culture — including the militarizing of the police. The military’s mission is to kill the enemy. A police department’s mission is to keep the peace. Police, however, still kill about 1,000 Americans each year.

The PBA does not always fit easily into a stereotype. Notably, the union opposed open-carry bills in the Legislature, believing that allowing people to openly carry firearms would endanger officers.

Under contracts with cities and counties, the union pays legal fees for officers accused of crimes. Kazanjian, however, notes that the union can withdraw that support if the charges fall outside the line of duty.

In 2016, the union did not represent a Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s deputy accused of forcing himself on a woman while in uniform. Yet the PBA continues its defense of Nouman Raja. The former Palm Beach Gardens officer fatally shot Corey Jones, an African-American man, in 2015. Raja lied about the encounter, believing that the only witness was dead.

In fact, an audiotape of Jones’ call for roadside assistance confirmed that Raja provoked a confrontation and continued to fire at Jones as he fled. Raja has appealed his 25-year sentence on two felony counts.

Unions have lobbied for protections — including partial immunity — that make it hard to fire officers, much less prosecute them. USA Today Network reported that only about 1,600 officers in Florida were disciplined for excessive force between 1985 and 2018, and only about one-third lost their jobs.

Kazanjian blames departments for poor screening. “They miss something, the guy gets hired, and we wind up defending him.” But if civilians, as Kanzanjian claims, associate all police with the actions of those officers in Minneapolis, unions have escalated the tension. They see an attack on an officer by one person as an attack by the community.

Kanzajian said he hopes that the PBA has “a big role” in discussions about racism and policing reform. “I’m not going to let it happen without us.” Ideally, the union would be part of the solution.

But that would require a major shift in attitude. According to the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of white officers believe that America has done enough to ensure racial equality. Only 29 percent of African-American officers agree.

My strongest memory of the union mindset dates back almost 30 years. I sat in a courtroom waiting to hear the verdict in the case against two West Palm Beach officers who had beaten a man to death after stopping him for hitchhiking. After an inept prosecution, the jury found them not guilty.

Dozens of union members were in the audience. The cops erupted upon hearing the acquittal. They cheered. They pumped fists. It was tribal. As the judge told me later, it worried him.

Until recently, police unions could be confident that most members of the public were on their side. In Florida, the PBA could count on Republican support. That began in 1998, when the union endorsed Jeb Bush in return for his signature on a GOP bill that forced cities and counties to increase police pensions.

As the protests of the last two weeks have shown, however, things have changed. The unions — and Republicans — now must acknowledge that sentiment has shifted to “that man.”