"Lack of Support" Triggered Florida SWAT Officers to Quit
The recent resignation of the 10 members of a SWAT team of South Florida police department has been all over different news websites in the past day or two, and among the main reasons why they resigned was their claim of "lack of support" specifically from Vice Mayor Sabrina Javellana.
The resigned officers also referred to some grievances and this included the kneeling of the Hallandale Beach police chief this week, with protesters.
Even though they stepped down from their roles in the team, the said 10 SWAT officials, the Miami Herald reported, will stay with the police force.
Specifically, the SWAT team sent a memo, which, according to Greg Chavarria, the City manager, the Hallandale Beach city officials received on Friday night. The said memo contained the team's detailed complaints.
Also part of the grievances was the SWAT team's claim that they are frequently controlled "by the politicization of our tactics" in the middle of anti-police brutality demonstrations across the nation.
The Resignation
The letter, addressed to Chief of Police Sonia Quinones on Tuesday but made available for public knowledge on Friday by ABC 10, claimed that officers of the SWAT team experience "anguish and stress" when they are sentenced or convicted for their actions in the field.
In the letter, the officers specified that the danger of continuing to fulfil their duties is not acceptable to them and their respective families anymore.
More so, they claimed, as they mentioned in the letter, they are "minimally equipped and undertrained. The officers alleged too, that the department, as mentioned in the letter, is "Placing the safety of dogs over the team members' safety."
Also included in the resignation letter was the officers' claim that, until the said circumstances and sentiments are remedied and dealt with, they cannot safely and efficiently "and in good faith carry out" their responsibilities in this capability sans putting themselves and their families at this unnecessarily amplified degree of risk."
Vice Mayor Javellana, a Special Mention in the Letter
The officers also specifically mentioned in their letter, Vice Mayor Sabrina Javellana, who reportedly kneeled with demonstrators saying the 22-year-old government leader has made "ignorant and inaccurate statements" that attack the legal actions of the officers of the city, as well as the SWAT team, both from the podium and social media.
As earlier mentioned, they accused her of "a 'lack of support' as well." For quite some time now, the vice mayor has been vocal about 34-year-old, Howard Bowe's death. He was the black man who was shot dead in his home during a drug raid in 2014.
In connection to this, Sun Sentinel reported, 15 officers responded to the black man's home one early morning in the said year, killed his pitbull and broke the door of his apartment. Also, according to reports, authorities then used a stun gun to shoot Bowe.
Javellana, the resigned officers said in their letter, has shown that she is taking pleasure in "besmirching the hard work" and commitment of this professional agency's members, having the nerve to compare them "to the Minneapolis Department."
Meanwhile, the vice mayor explained to the Sun Sentinel that she does not regret kneeling with the demonstrators even after the SWAT team members' mass resignation. She also said she has been very vocal about Bowe's wrongful death even before she became vice mayor of the city.
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