Cleveland police union president Steve Loomis gave a press conference this afternoon to address the discipline delved out to Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback in the Tamir Rice shooting, which was announced earlier today in a press conference by Frank Jackson, Chief Calvin Williams and others.
You can watch the video for yourself below but the short version: Loomis supports his officers, thinks they did nothing wrong, and bemoans that the city felt it needed to come up with some justification for firing Loehmann, thus digging back into his application process, despite the fact that a review committee didn’t find any fault in his actions on the day he shot and killed Tamir Rice. It was politics, Loomis claimed, a political witch hunt, a byproduct of minister pressure and Frank Jackson’s re-election campaign. “The vast majority of the public supports us on this,” he said. “There is no doubt in my mind we’re going to get Loehmann his job back.” The union has filed appeals on behalf of both officers.
Loehmann was terminated for failing to disclose that Independence allowed him to resign rather than being fired after a particularly disastrous stint as an officer there. Garmback received a 10-day suspension that beings tomorrow. Loomis said “we’ll probably get a bunch of days back off Garmback’s suspension” too.
This article appears in May 24-30, 2017.
Loehman got what he deserved. The Tamir Rice tragedy aside, lying by omission on your job application is a terminable offense. He wouldn’t have been hired had he disclosed this. Therefore his termination is valid.
The investigation into the shooting of Tamir Rice brought this information into the open.
Politics benefitted from this, but wasn’t the cause of his termination.
Loomis is a pig…and a cancer on the police department and the City of Cleveland.
It is surprising that The Don has yet to find a White House job for a thug like Loomis — if nothing else, he could jump out of closets to frighten tour groups….while portraying Uncle Fester.
Whelp, it looks like this is just the latest lesson in that whole “don’t lie on your job application” thing. If you don’t want to get fired for lying on your job application, I’ve always found it’s best not to lie on your job application. The more you know!