CLEVELAND, OH – If the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Assocation (CPPA) and its members cared about obeying all the federal, state and local criminal laws Section 737.11 of Ohio’s Revised Code mandates they have no other duty but to “obey, first, and enforce,” the “patrol officers” who lead it would have reviewed Section 4513.21 as a start for guidance on “emergency vehicle” horns, sirens and warning devices to learn how they and the lights were legally authorized and not authorized to use it and its equipment. 

It’s disgusting that municipal police officer in Ohio are not taught R.C. 737.11 as their only legally authorized description of duties.  “To protect and serve” is just a slogan.  IThe duty is “obey and enforce all criminal laws of the United States, the state and of the municipal corporation.” The truth is no municipal law enforcement officer is authorized to disobey a criminal law.

Cleveland police at noon on June 8th were supposed to disregard all the criminal laws they’re mandated to obey and stop, turn on the emergency lights of the “emergency vehicle” they were assigned and place their hands over their heart or salute the flag to show solidarity for each other.  According to the CPPA memo, unsigned of course, they are manning the “front lines” and law enforcement families are being devastated.

The memo ignores “why” law enforcement families are being devastated.  Folmer makes no reference to the constitutional rights violations, law breaking and violence of their primary cop breadwinner’s found in three U.S. Department of Justice “civil” instead of “criminal” investigations between president’s George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  

The problem with the memo is the CPPA is just a 501.c3 non-profit and its president, Jeffrey Folmer, is just a patrol officer with no legal authority to open his mouth about anything other than the union’s contract with the city. 

From the perspective of this writer being a former mayor, a patrol officer is the lowest rank and most impotent employee in a police department even if that patrol officer is a detective.  Whatever reasons Folmer didn’t move up in rank, he’s still just a patrol officer who appears to believe the “title” of a non-profit organization makes him “important” instead of “impotent.”

The only exceptions to the the traffic laws enacted by the Ohio General Assembly are found in Section 4511.041 of Ohio’s revised code.  The heading is, “Exceptions to traffic rules for emergency or public safety vehicle responding to emergency call.”

Sections 4511.12, 4511.13, 4511.131, 4511.132, 4511.14, 4511.202, 4511.21, 4511.211, 4511.22, 4511.23, 4511.25, 4511.26, 4511.27, 4511.28, 4511.29, 4511.30, 4511.31, 4511.32, 4511.33, 4511.34, 4511.35, 4511.36, 4511.37, 4511.38, 4511.39, 4511.40, 4511.41, 4511.42, 4511.43, 4511.431, 4511.432, 4511.44, 4511.441, 4511.57, 4511.58, 4511.59, 4511.60, 4511.61, 4511.62, 4511.66, 4511.68, 4511.681, and 4511.69 of the Revised Code do not apply to the driver of an emergency vehicle or public safety vehicle if the emergency vehicle or public safety vehicle is responding to an emergency call, is equipped with and displaying at least one flashing, rotating, or oscillating light visible under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of five hundred feet to the front of the vehicle and if the driver of the vehicle is giving an audible signal by siren, exhaust whistle, or bell. This section does not relieve the driver of an emergency vehicle or public safety vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons and property upon the highway.

None of the statutory exceptions includes the CPPA’s June 8 instructions to municipal workers whose work they sought to obstruct for their publicity stunt.  It doesn’t include them adding wear and tear to city emergency and public safety vehicles, as well as their taxpayer-paid uniforms, to stage publicity stunts for the police union.

What they specify is an escalating series of penalties from minor misdemeanors for the first offense; and fourth and third degree misdemeanors for subsequent offenses. Those aren’t laws cops in conspiring “solidarity” with each other obey and enforce. They think they have “officer discretion” when those words appear no where in the duties defined in R.C. 737.11’s use of the word “all” when it comes to the criminal laws Folmer and CPPA organized crime gang have no other duty but to obey and enforce.  That includes when of them witnesses another law enforcer disobeying all the federal, state and local acrimninal laws they have no other duty but to obey.

At all times unless they are responding to an emergency municipal law enforcement officers must obey every traffic law any other driver obeys; and that includes waiting for stop lights instead of activating overhead lights to violate the law while pretending to be responding to an emergency.

Following the CPPA’s memo created a series of criminal charges for the municipal public safety workers that Jackson, in his official capacity as mayor, has no other duty pursuant to R.C. 733.34 but to enforce.  Elected and appointed officials can’t “suspend” state and federal laws by failing or refusing to enforce them; especially when law enforcers are violating them.

The CPPA’s intended obstruction occured when its members were on “city time.” Since the only duties employees on city time are authorized to perform are those authorized by law, any officer who wanted to obey the CPPA instead of R.C. 737.11 should have clocked out, returned the public safety vehicle, taken off their uniform and showed whatever “solidarity” they wanted. 

The concept of “solidarity” among law enforcers is the problem Jackson and other mayors across the nation have with police in states that authorized unions to exist.  Most southern states and Indiana outlawed negotiations with them.  Ohio did, too, until a union-loving Italian American Democrat named Richard Frank Celeste won the governor’s race in 1982.  Solidarity is why Cleveland police cover-up each other’s crimes against this town’s citizens as the USDOJ found in over 600 incident reports.

Whether he’s a union president or not, Folmer’s always just a municipal patrol officer who’s being paid as such to perform “union” duties when he should be working as a cop.  Because of a “letter” ex-Cleveland Mayor Michael White signed that lets union officials illegally handle union business instead of performing the duties they’re lawfully budgeted for, Folmer’s “union business” includes a planned August 14, 2020 golf fund raiser on a Friday.  

Despite what appears to be Folmer’s order, cops were told “no” by police chief Calvin Williams. What Jackson should order Williams to do is identify the originator of the memo and charge him criminally with obstruction of official business and theft.  Jackson should also assign Williams to identify every cop who obeyed the “union’s” past and recent orders and charge them for misusing the equipment of “emergency vehicles” and “public safety vehicles.”  Both are defined in Title 45 of Ohio’s revised code the CPPA’s memo ignores.