Conservative Media Outlets Call For Busting Up Police Unions After Killing of George Floyd
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
In an indication of a rare issue on which conservatives and progressives might find common ground, several prominent op-eds in right-leaning media outlets are calling for police unions to be broken up following the killing of George Floyd.
The Washington Examiner, on Monday, published an opinion piece from its editorial board with this: “If you want more accountability, rein in police unions.” The column referenced Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis cop charged with second degree murder in Floyd’s death, and noted that he’d received 17 complaints in 20 years on the job — 16 of which were not resolved.
“[O]fficers should not be allowed to play by a whole different set of rules — rules that are often written by their unions and negotiated into effect,” said the op-ed. “At this moment, the principle of equal protection under the law is looking increasingly irreconcilable with the aims of the organizations representing police officers in the workplace. Police unions are prioritizing individual job protection of even bad cops, at the expense of law enforcement’s broader mission to protect the life, liberty, and property of the communities.”
The Examiner editorial board statement follows an op-ed which ran in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend headlined,”Bust the Police Unions to Rank and Yank Bad Cops.” Authored by Saqib Qureshi, the piece likewise calls for unions to be stripped of their powers.
“Public-sector unions, including police unions, will do almost anything to protect their members,” Qureshi wrote. “These unions create a culture of impunity. Even police officers who are terminated can be reinstated, ‘often via secretive appeals geared to protect labor rights rather than public safety’ as a 2014 piece in the Atlantic put it.”
Other right-leaning outlets, such as Reason, concur — with a contributor to that publication writing, “If one wants to tackle the structural obstacles to holding rogue police officers accountable, it seems to me one has to address the power of police unions.”
