Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis had every reason to be outraged over an inflammatory email sent Sunday by a lieutenant that described protesters at a police union conference in the Inner Harbor as "thugs."
Lt. Victor Gearhart, who is first vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 in Baltimore, was way off base in characterizing peaceful demonstrators as violent criminals. "Expect more bad behavior from the THUGS OF BALTIMORE," Mr. Gearhart wrote in an email from his departmental account that went to the entire police department. "On the bright side," he continued, "maybe they will stop killing each other while they are protesting us." He went on to criticize the Department of Justice's recent report detailing repeated constitutional violations by city police as lacking "scholarly objectivity" and "statistical rigor."
It wasn't the first time Mr. Gearhart had spoken out in ways that are damaging to his department and his profession. In our view, the officer's propensity for making intemperate, racially tinged remarks suggests he is not the sort of person who should be on the force, particularly at a time when Baltimore is trying to rebuild a relationship of trust between the department and city residents.
On Monday, Chief Davis rightfully suspended Mr. Gearhart from duty pending an investigation.
The question remains, though, will the FOP conclude that Mr. Gearhart is not representing the interests or attitudes of its members? It has backed Mr. Gearhart's lawsuit contending that his reassignment after sending offensive tweets last year was unconstitutional. Does it still defend him now that his offensive remarks are coming from his departmental email account rather than a private Twitter feed?
This is a crucial moment for the FOP. It's president, Gene Ryan, reacted to the DOJ report by defending rank-and-file cops as victims of policies that prize arrest statistics over good police work and urging sworn officers to be part of the solution as the Justice Department and city negotiate a consent decree.
But critics have long faulted the organization's willingness to defend virtually any officer no matter what and its resistance to reforms to the department's disciplinary process. Elements of the union contract contribute to long delays in internal affairs investigations, which take much longer to resolve on average in Baltimore than in other cities.
Chief Davis can transfer Lieutenant Gearhart to the night security detail at police headquarters, as he did after the tweets, and he can suspend him, as he did this week. But so long as he remains an officer of the FOP, the public is going to see his remarks about "thugs" as reflecting mainstream views in the department. If they are, we have a bigger problem on our hands than even the DOJ report indicated. If not, the FOP needs to stop letting his offensive rants tarnish the names of its members.