For the first time in his 22-year career as a Cleveland police officer, Det. Lynn Hampton is concerned about his safety. He’s always stood strongly with his brothers in blue, but increasingly he’s feeling that some cops are making his job more dangerous than it has to or should be.
“The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association is playing with dynamite by endorsing a candidate for president,” Hampton said in an exclusive interview. “This will escalate tensions between law enforcement and members of the community, and nothing good can ever come from that. The city is attempting to negotiate a consent decree with the Department of Justice, and this action could derail it.”
Hampton, who also serves as the president of the Black Shield (the organization started by black police officers in 1946 because of the duress they were under from white cops), has been vocal in his criticism of Loomis and the union for holding the endorsement vote.
“Less than 25 percent of the members took part in the vote, and virtually all officers of color refrained from participating because they knew how divisive such a vote would be. Fully a third of the cops in Cleveland are black or brown, and the city is majority minority, so this was a clear provocation.”
The frequency with which unarmed young black males are gunned down (usually by white cops) and seemingly are never held accountable has neighborhoods all across the country on edge, according to Hampton.
“People are being pushed to the brink, and when someone loses it and grabs a gun, they don’t stop to see if it’s a black or brown cop or a female, they just see the blue uniform, all of us are on the line. The actions of a few white cops keep things all stirred up, but all of us who simply want to protect and serve can end up paying the price.”
Back in July, a 25-year veteran black Warrensville Heights police officer, Nakia Jones, spoke out after viewing a video of the killing of Alton Sterling in Louisiana by one of two cops that had him pinned to on the ground. She knew full well that she would be criticized for speaking out, but similar to other cops around the country, she felt duty-bound. This is important since black cops historically have remained silent regarding misconduct by their white counterparts. But this is changing.
“We know how hard it’s going to be to create change within departments around the country,” said Hampton, “because there’s always going to be union leaders and other officers that think like Loomis that are going to do anything within their power to maintain the status quo. That’s why he’s saying that he ‘wants a friend in the White House like Donald Trump’ — someone who has their best interest at heart and will prevent change.”
Asked if he felt the mistreatment of blacks by white cops will increase if Trump wins the White House, Hampton is quick to say, “Yes — one of the first things a President Trump would do is tell the Department of Justice to scuttle consent decrees around the country. That’s exactly what Bush did when he took office back in 2001; he killed the decrees. If that hadn’t happened relations between police and citizens would be better all over America.”
Hampton posits that we’re at a critical juncture in the country. “A few loose cannon cops around the country are making it dangerous for the rest of us who just want to do a good job and treat people with respect and dignity. What they’re doing is putting targets on our backs, just like what happened to those good officers down in Dallas.”
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com
4 Responses to “MANSFIELD: An Interview with Det. Lynn Hampton”
Gilbert Melton
There are thousands of Diversity Training organization in the United States. Cleveland PD has consistently declined to even talk with any of these companies. Several fortune 50- companies and several African Nations that have transitioned to majority rule (Africans have voted out the Europeans) used US training firms to make the transition peaceful and mostly productive. This situation in Cleveland is one I am familiar with since I left in 1966 because the climate in the city was not good. Some 52 years later I thank GOD for leading me out of what I felt was a Nazi concentration camp. Under no circumstances would I entertain the thought of moving back.
Linda James
Why we cannot let Trump in office.
Garry Kanter
Detective Hampton is a commissioner on the Cleveland Community Police Commission.
It is one aspect of the Consent Decree that was approved by Chief Judge Solomon OLiver, Jr. on June 12, 2016.
There’s no more “negotiating”. They are already “implementing”.
And fellow commissioner Loomis is doing everything he can to – once again – make sure there is no reform of the CDP.
That there will be no Bias Free Constitutional Policing.
Same as the last time the DOJ failed, in 2002 – 2005.
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“The city is attempting to negotiate a consent decree with the Department of Justice, and this action could derail it.”
Garry Kanter
In this interview, Loomis clearly states the well-understood duties of a police union president:
“My role in it is as the police union president, looking out for the best interests of the police union members.”
http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/cleveland/russ-mitchell-goes-one-on-one-with-cppa-president/329082661
That he could be allowed by the mayor, the city council, the DOJ, and the Monitor to knowingly and fraudulently swear to “impartially” uphold this oath to serve on the Cleveland Community Police Commission is an insult to We The People and a detriment to the Consent Decree implementation:
“I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Ohio, the Codified Ordinances and the Charter of the City of Cleveland and that I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Member of the Cleveland Community Police Commission, for a four year term, commencing on September 8, 2015, to the City of Cleveland, State of Ohio, during my continuance in said office.”