FOP To Bill: You Lied We Die

[danchangtulsa]

December 11, 2002

Honorable Bill LaFortune
200 Civic Center
Tulsa, OK 74103

Mayor LaFortune:

In regard to recent events involving the black officers' lawsuit, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 93 Board of Directors is compelled to communicate our position to you in this correspondence.

The settlement agreement, between the City of Tulsa and the plaintiffs is profoundly distressing to the Board and the membership of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 93. The settlement is unacceptable to us for following reasons:

The consent decree represents an implication, if not an admission, of guilt that Tulsa Police Officers and the City of Tulsa are at least partially culpable for the outrageous and untruthful claims made by the plaintiffs in this case. The denial of liability statement in the consent decree is not sufficient to deter those with political vendettas against the Tulsa Police Department from furthering their political agendas. These opponents of the Tulsa Police Department may now claim proof that racially bias practices toward some employees and the public have existed in the past. By agreeing to this settlement, you have deemed us guilty and insulted the integrity and demeaned the professional reputation of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 93.

Your settlement is borne out of political expediency and is not based on the principle of truth and fairness. Quite frankly, our observation is that you could not stand the heat and abandoned fighting for the integrity of the Tulsa Police Department and the City itself. In the game of politics, you have set the stage to wrongly give the impression to the public that the FOP is simply a disgruntled group of obstructionists. Furthermore, you have obligated the citizens of Tulsa to spend untold millions of dollars to fix a problem that does not exist. Likewise, your settlement will adversely affect police service delivered to the Citizens of Tulsa, while at the same time demoralizing Tulsa Police Officers. This was done without one shred of evidence being considered in a court of law. Your settlement will cause us to add additional manpower yet decrease direct police protection and service. Only the bureaucracy will grow. It is ironic that you ran on a platform of making Tulsa a safe and secure place to live. Yet to date, your most important act will be to take away some of our effectiveness in our efforts to protect the citizens of Tulsa. Mr. Mayor have you bothered to interview any of the street officers in cities with a consent decree such as this one to gain their perspective? We know the answer must be no, otherwise you would not be placing the citizens of our city in such an unfortunate situation.

It is additionally quite distressing that you misrepresented your positions to Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 93 leadership prior our endorsement of you in the mayoral campaign. Our leaders communicated to you critical concerns regarding the Department of Justice investigation and the Black Officers Coalition. You directly told us, during a FOP meeting attended by over one hundred officers, you supported our position regarding these issues. We also discussed our wishes to establish and maintain open lines of communication and dialogue with the Mayor's office, even when we disagreed. We hoped to establish understanding and trust between the Mayor's office and the FOP. Unfortunately, your actions have not been consistent with your campaign pledges and comments made when you attended our FOP Lodge meeting. We believed you to be a man of integrity and endorsed you based on your representation of your position on these crucial issues.

You talk of "healing" within the Tulsa Police Department and the community. That will be a difficult task for you to accomplish, especially now that we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of questioning both your integrity and our own decision to extend our endorsement to you during the campaign.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 93
Board of Directors
[signed]
Sgt. Van Ellis, Chairman
Sgt. Travis Yates, Board Member
Ofc. Mark Secrist, Board Member
Ofc. Ron Bartmier, Board Member
Ofc. Dave Burr, Board Member
Sgt. Chris Witt, Board Member