Protesters call for Minneapolis police union leader to resign
Protesters rallied outside the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis offices on Wednesday.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (FOX 9) - The calls for Police Federation President Bob Kroll to resign are getting louder and louder, as he says the federation will help the officers involved in George Floyd’s death fight for their jobs.
At least a couple of hundred people lined up outside police union headquarters with a clear message on Wednesday.
"I want him to step down and I want all of them to step down," said one protester. "This organization is a racist organization."
The call for Bob Kroll’s resignation is being echoed by various local unions, even the head coach of the Minnesota Lynx is tweeting with the hashtag #Krollmustgo. And now his former boss Jeneau Harteau is calling on him to turn in his badge.
This after Kroll wrote a letter to union members calling George Floyd a "violent criminal" and referring to recent protests as a "terrorist movement.”
Bob Kroll
"I don’t know what the process is, I just know he needs to go," said Lisa Mabley, a protester from Minneapolis.
But the only people who can truly oust the outspoken union leader is the officers he represents.
"He's not appointed by the city," said University of Minnesota Associate Professor Joshua Page. "He’s not appointed by the police department. For him to be removed, it would take the rank and file members of the union to want him to be removed and take matters to do that."
Page wrote a book about California's prison officer’s union. He says while the police chief sets the policy, it's almost impossible to implement if the union isn’t on the same page.
"It can be very difficult and get a lot of friction if the union doesn’t support them," explained Page.
And historically, in the end, it's the police chief that takes the fall.
Kroll said in that letter to members that he's received countless death threats recently. We reached out to him for comment but he didn’t respond.