Baltimore, Maryland (ANTIMEDIA) — Baltimore resident and 911 dispatcher, Kelli Murray, has resigned from her job of eight years after being intimidated and scorned by the national police community. She feared for her safety.
In December, Kelli Murray made several comments on a Facebook thread with other dispatchers about police brutality.
Among other things , she commented:
“So, it’s okay to KILL black children and their lives do not matter because they may or may NOT have made a bad decision.”
And
“…I would rather MY son to be approached by so-called THUGS, than for him to encounter any policeman…”
After a fellow dispatcher took screen shots of her comment sand sent them to several officers, cops began shaming her and calling for her termination.
Cole Weston, president of the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #4 said:
“I’m troubled by the comments, even if they were made on a private Facebook page…A 911 [technician] is part of the public safety network and you are communicating very sensitive information.”
He went on to spew the usual “officer safety” talking points:
“The response I’ve received from the membership is one of concern. They don’t want to be working with someone that has expressed such anti-law enforcement views. This is a major trust issue and a legitimate concern from the membership.”
The FOP also issued an official statement calling for her termination. When the story went viral, Murray made a video to clarify her views. She explained her statement on “thugs,”as well as her recent experience.
“I would rather my son encounter someone who could possibly go to jail for hurting him…then we might see justice. But if he was to be hurt or shot by a police officer, most likely nothing would happen.”
Murray shared that her statements were in response to “ugly,” disrespectful comments about Michael Brown, the teenager shot by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.
She also stated that she is not anti-police, but anti-police brutality, stressing that she has Facebook friends who were cops, had worked with them for 8 years as a dispatcher, and even had relatives in uniform.
Murray also shared that she feared for the safety of her family. That’s because she learned that after the screen shots were circulated, officers were texting dispatchers to ask not only who she was, but when she worked. Police she didn’t know began adding her on Facebook. She says she went to her superiors to ask for an investigation into whether or not officers had accessed her information on the police database. She suspected they had.
The only investgiation conducted, she alleges in her video, was whether or not to discipline or fire her. She was able to keep her job, but feared for her 6 children because the behavior of the police.
County officials eventually confirmed that someone had improperly (and illegally) accessed her information, but left it up to the person’s own department to handle. They claimed the violation was not committed by police. Nevertheless, Murray, who in 2013 was given a “Telecommunicator of the Year” Award, says the her superiors and the county gave her insufficient support and resources.
In December, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said in a statement that he fully supported police, but
“…at the same time, individuals are constitutionally protected by the right to free speech, and that protection does not end when someone chooses to become a County employee.”
(This did not satisfy Murray’s uniformed critics.)
These same Baltimore police are known for their brutality. You can read about it here, here, and here. Oh, and here. Murray’s statements were tame relative to many more aggressive sentiments against cops.
Police around the county have generated intense fear, from politicians to private citizens. They act with a thuggish, gang mentality that presumes they can do no wrong and no one may disagree and the actions of city governments and court systems reinforce these beliefs. The fact that police know how to rule only with an iron fist of fear, however, proves their violent authority is unjustified.