S01E27 Gary McLhinney, American Police in Polar Peril

Capitol Police Officer Death, George Floyd Officer Trial Puts Police Back in the News

 April 4, 2021 – The testimony of eight Minneapolis police officers against colleague Derek Chauvin will likely doom the officer accused of murdering George Floyd, a veteran police analyst told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields.

 “If I put myself in the seats of the jurors, I think it’s pretty damning,” said Gary McLhinney, former president of the Fraternal Order of Police union in Baltimore. “You judge police officers’ actions by what their peers would do in a similar situation. I think the testimony so far has been that the average police officer, in that situation, would not have done what that particular police officer did.”

 McLhinney, also a former Maryland police chief, said the recent death of U.S. Capitol police officer Billy Evans should sound the alarm that the force is understaffed and in rising danger since the Jan. 6 attack on the building.

 “That job in particular now is very difficult because you’re trying to balance access with security and those don’t go together very easily,” McLhinney said.

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Listen to the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields at: http://www.retailpoliticspodcast or on Apple or Spotify.