Six Seattle police officers are being threatened with termination unless they turn over personal communications in the wake of their visits to Washington, D.C., to attend the Jan 6th Trump rally.
The Office of Police Accountability (OPA) has asked for private communications even after the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Capitol riot.
Two of the officers posted pictures on social media showing they attended the Trump rally that day. Four more came forward voluntarily to confirm their attendance. Each officer was on vacation, and none were in uniform.
But the investigation that cleared the officers wasn’t enough for the OPA. They carried out a “pro-active investigation” on their own and are demanding the police officers turn over their personal information or face termination.
The documents include text messages to family or friends, photographs taken while in D.C. on vacation, receipts from hotels or restaurants they patronized, and even personal bank records during the time they were there.
According to an internal email from the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) to members, obtained by the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, “the city told us that Director Myerberg’s order was supported with the threat of termination.”
“I can confirm that OPA has ordered the officers to provide evidence of their whereabouts and activities on January 6 and, specifically, during the time that the insurrection was ongoing within and around the U.S. Capitol. This includes receipts, texts, photographs, and records of financial transactions,” OPA director Andrew Myerberg explained to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
So, guilty until proven innocent? Nice.
At least some of the officers were also asked personal questions about their political beliefs by OPA. It’s unclear what specific questions were asked by OPA. Given the investigation, the officers were likely asked if they thought the election was stolen or if they attended the rally because they believed claims made by then-President Trump over election integrity.
At the time, SPOG leadership objected to the questioning.
The SPOG obviously doesn’t know how modern American woke society operates. The personal is political and while it’s illegal in many states to ask about politics, that obviously doesn’t include the all-powerful OPA, which doesn’t have to play by the rules that the rest of us do.
“In several of the interviews, the named employees were ordered to answer personal protected political questions that in SPOG’s view had absolutely no bearing on this investigation,” SPOG president Mike Solan wrote in an email to members. “Our board of director representatives vehemently objected to these questions for the record as they were improper and exemplified a violation of civil rights.”
The OPA official claims the officer’s rights were fully protected under the contract. It wouldn’t matter if they were. There’s a higher law under which any justice system — even the woke OPA — operates. And that is the Constitution of the United States.
But these officers are not being afforded legal protections. There was no evidence presented showing a crime, and yet they still face an investigation for engaging in undisputably protected political speech. City employees are legally allowed to attend a speech by the president, even if it’s Trump.
These officers aren’t afforded due process. And it comes off as less of an investigation and more of a politically-driven witch hunt.
When constitutional rights can be set aside at will, it becomes a meaningless document. It’s true, many of those rights are troublesome. But if you don’t like it, you can always change it.
“It’s too haaaaaard,” weep the lefties. It’s supposed to be hard, dammit. The people are not sheep to be led around by a bunch of woke hipsters. You can’t pick and choose which parts of the Constitution you think should be followed and which parts should be ignored.
No American should have to go through what those officers are experiencing. Stop the witch hunt in Seattle and tell the FBI to call off the dogs. There are 400 people already in custody and wouldn’t you love to know how many actually belong there?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member