A Major Obstacle to Police Reform: The Whiteness of Their Union Bosses

The president of Minneapolis’s police union called George Floyd a “violent criminal” and those protesting his killing by a police officer a “terrorist movement.” A union chief in Baltimore once said Black Lives Matter activists were a “lynch mob”; one in Philadelphia referred to them as “a pack of rabid animals.” Another has labeled St. Louis’s democratically elected prosecutor, who is black and supports police reform, a “menace to society” who must be removed “by force” if necessary.All of these union leaders also have this in common: They are white.This article was published in partnership with The Guardian.In many cities, police officers are more likely to be white than the people they are sworn to protect and serve. But this is especially true of the presidents of their unions, The Marshall Project found in an analysis of demographic data from major U.S. police departments. Of the 15 largest departments in which a majority of officers are people of color, only one, Memphis, has a union leader who is black.Another, in Honolulu, is led by an Asian-Pacific Islander, and the union president of the Miami Police Department is white Hispanic.The Marshall Project confirmed the race of 12 union leaders by asking them or their staff directly, using voter registration records and asking local reporters who cover the police; three leaders who appear to be white in photos on their unions’ websites did not respond to repeated calls.