The entire special weapons and tactics (SWAT) Team of the Hallandale Beach Police Department resigned on Friday in response to Police Chief Sonia Quinones kneeling alongside protesters demonstrating against anti-black police brutality.
On Friday, City Manager Greg Chavarria received a memorandum dated June 9 from members of SWAT team. In the memo, the officers submitted their resignation. One of the officers was the newly elected president of the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA)
The memo said the SWAT team was "minimally equipped, under-trained and often times restrained by the politicization of our tactics." It accused city leaders of not providing an adequate budget to address these needs.
The memo also claimed that the city's Vice-Mayor Sabrina Javellana made "ignorant and inaccurate statements attacking the lawful actions" of the police and SWAT teams in speeches and on social media including "having the gall to compare us to the Minneapolis Police Department."
It went on to accuse Quinones of "taking a knee in solidarity" with Javellana and other political activists who allegedly chanted "Howard Bowe, reopen the case, State Attorney, reopen the case."
The alleged chant refers to a black 34-year-old resident who died on May 19, 2014, 11 days after he was shot during an early-morning SWAT team raid on his home.
Although the SWAT team had a search warrant, the police shot the family dog chained outside of the home and didn't knock before entering, as was required by the warrant. Bowes' family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the city and four police officers involved.
The city ended up paying a $425,000 settlement to the man's family, and the Hallandale Police assured the family "they don't use military-style raids for minor drug investigations anymore," according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The officers were cleared of any wrongdoing after an internal review.
https://www.newsweek.com/all-members-swat-team-florida-city-resign-including-police-union-president-over-chief-kneeling-1510637