Report: Pete Buttigieg Under Fire, South Bend Cops Warn 'Mass Exodus'
Mass disenchantment with what South Bend, Indiana, police say is a lack of support from the city’s mayor, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, has led to a crisis in the department, Fox News reported Monday.
Although Fox based much of its reporting on police officers it did not identify, it also quoted South Bend Fraternal Order of Police President Harvey Mills as saying Buttigieg’s handling of an officer-involved shooting could trigger a half-dozen retirements.
Officers quoted by Fox pulled no punches.
“Morale around here has been terrible. We do nothing,” one officer said. “We call ourselves firemen, we sit around in parking lots until we’re called and then we go to the call, because if you say or do something wrong, then you get hung.”
Another officer said morale was “at an all-time low. It’s been really demoralizing and hard to come to work lately.”
Fox News said officers are thinking more about leaving the department than anything else.
“It’s very discouraging that something I’ve always wanted to do, that God called me to do, that I’m questioning that and wondering, thinking about not being a police officer strictly because of politics and things that are going on that are completely out of my control,” one officer said.
“That’s the big discussion … is who’s staying and who’s going. I think you’re going to see a mass exodus, our administration is a joke,” one officer said.
The catalyst for the crisis was the fatal shooting of a black man, Eric Jack Logan, 54, by Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, who is white. O’Neill has said he told Logan to drop a knife and fired when his order was not obeyed. O’Neill, who has since resigned, did not have his body camera on at the time of the incident.
Buttigieg referred to the shooting during last month’s Democratic presidential debate.
“My community is in anguish right now because of an officer-involved shooting, a black man, Eric Logan, killed by a white officer,” Buttigieg said. “And I’m not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back. The officer said he was attacked with a knife, but he didn’t have his body camera on. It’s a mess. And we’re hurting.
“And I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community, all of the steps that we took, from bias training to de-escalation, but it didn’t save the life of Eric Logan. And when I look into his mother’s eyes, I have to face the fact that nothing that I say will bring him back.
“This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country. And until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism whatever this particular incident teaches us we will be left with the bigger problem of the fact that there is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time. Not just from what has happened in the past but what’s happening around the country in the present. It threatens the well being of every community.
“And I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle when they see a police officer approaching feels the exact same thing. A feeling not of fear but of safety. I’m determined to bring that day about.”
Those comments did not play well among South Bend officers.
“To me, it’s like he kind of convicted Sgt. O’Neill before anything was even out, making comments like that,” one officer told Fox News. “It wasn’t based on the facts of what happened, because we don’t even have all the facts of what happened. It’s like pouring gas on the fire.”
Another officer said South Bend police “feel like we’re guilty until proven innocent.”
The Buttigieg campaign did not respond to the Fox News report.
The South Bend Police Department, in a statement, described its officers as “professionals who regularly go above and beyond to serve the community,” adding, “We do not comment on anonymous speculation and rumor.”
The Western Journal has reached out to the department for additional comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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