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Cleveland’s police officer of the year glorified Hitler; no disciplinary action to be taken

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Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
in


Cleveland’s police officer of the year glorified Hitler; no disciplinary action to be taken

Hired in 2018, Ismail Quran rose quickly in the Cleveland police department. He was honored by his department as Police Officer of the Year one year later. But last June, an internal investigation was begun to determine if the officer posted antisemitic messages on social media during the period between 2013 and 2015 after a complaint was filed by StopAntisemitism claiming Quran had posted to social media disparaging remarks about Jews and even praised Adolf Hitler. Quran was assigned to administrative duties during the investigation.

Canary Mission documented his offensive posts. The list is quite long and might be overly offensive to some readers:

“Ismail Quran [Ismail W. Quran] has glorified Hitler and spread anti-Semitism as well as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Quran has also equated Israel with Nazi Germany and defended the designated terror group Hamas. In November 2017, Quran was a member of a closed Facebook group honoring Osama bin Laden”

Ismail Quran: Antisemitic Police Officer from Canary Mission on Vimeo.

“We are asking that the Cleveland Police Department and again the mayor’s office of Cleveland to not only terminate this officer, but rescind any and all awards that have been granted to him,” StopAntisemitism executive director Liora Rez said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland Chief of Police Wayne Drummond announced the results of the investigation, saying that Quran did commit “hateful offenses,” but are unable to discipline him since it happened before he joined the department.

“We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department,” said Bibb and Drummond in the joint statement. “Officer Quran’s hateful offenses were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline. In addition, this officer was hired in July 2018, prior to the implementation of key pre-employment, onboarding and training policies.”

“Antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or our police department. We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated,” Bibb and Drummond added.

The city said they are mandating cultural competency training for all employees in the Department of Public Safety. The city said it is also collaborating with the Anti-Defamation League on the mandatory training program which must be completed by the end of 2023. Like other officers, Quran will be required to take part in this training. A non-disciplinary letter of counseling to Quran will be placed in his personnel file.

The department has put in place the following protocols to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future and also sideline potential concerns:

  • Behavioral-based interviews
  • Social media monitoring
  • Implicit and explicit bias training
  • Mandatory cultural competency training across all public safety divisions

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