There have been, and are, other Robert Bakkers in police departments across the country, who fraternize with far-right groups that played an instrumental role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
And like Bakker, the Chicago police officer given a 120-day suspension for his association with the Proud Boys, some of those officers elsewhere managed to avoid being fired for either supporting or being a member of the extremist group.
Kevin P. Wilcox ended up retiring as an East Hampton, Connecticut, police officer in 2019 after it was revealed he had been a Proud Boy and made online payments to a group leader. However, weeks before, the top brass had concluded that Wilcox didn’t violate department policy and took no action against him.
That same year in Washington, D.C., independent journalist Ford Fischer recorded police officers on video escorting some Proud Boys to a bar following a scuffle that broke out during a flag-burning protest in front of the White House. En route, at least four police officers were seen giving a fist-bump to a Proud Boy. In that case, there were “insufficient facts” to determine that a policy violation occurred — although the officer, who had a cigar in his mouth when doling out the friendly hand gesture, was called out by the police chief for smoking, the DCist reported.
We would think in 2022 — with a group of Proud Boys awaiting trial on seditious conspiracy charges in connection to Jan. 6 — an officer linked to an insurrectionist group with ties to white nationalists would be virtually guaranteed a pink slip.
Apparently not.
Several City Council members are among those who are rightfully outraged, questioning why Bakker remains a police officer.
It’s also deeply troubling, as Inspector General Deborah Witzburg has pointed out, that the Chicago Police Department overlooked incriminating evidence and didn’t even consider firing Bakker for making inconsistent statements to the FBI and the CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs about his ties to the Proud Boys.
It does, indeed, set a bad precedent, as Witzburg said.
“The outcome of this case represents a determination that someone who made ‘false’ and ‘contradicting’ statements about his association with the Proud Boys should continue to wear the uniform of the Chicago Police Department,” Witzburg said in a statement.
While the Proud Boys insist they are not bigots — though the organization has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — their rank-and-file members and higher-ups often share the ideologies of the white nationalists they rub elbows with. They also haven’t shied away from embracing misogynistic and anti-Muslim rhetoric and are well-known for instigating physical attacks, according to the SPLC.
Why would Chicagoans, especially those who are Black or Brown or non-Christian, feel comfortable calling the police when there is a chance, no matter how slight, that the officer who turns up on their doorstep espouses bigotry?
And as others have pointed out, if Bakker can make false statements to authorities, is it hard to believe he might lie to protect himself when asked to testify in court or on police reports?
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown last week insisted that there was not enough evidence to prove Bakker “associated with or was a member of a hate group, Proud Boys or any other hate group” even though the internal affairs bureau found otherwise.
Had the FBI labeled the Proud Boys as a hate group, perhaps the outcome on Bakker’s investigation would have been different, Internal Affairs Chief Yolanda Talley insisted.
The problem is, the FBI doesn’t designate hate groups.
What the FBI’s internal policy documents do show, according to a 2020 report by New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center For Justice, is that agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases have found that white supremacist and anti-government militia groups often have “active links” to law enforcement.
Bakker’s infractions seem in line with those of a Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana sheriff’s deputy who was an administrator of the Facebook page for the Proud Boys’ local chapter. The deputy was fired in 2018 for violating a policy prohibiting employees from taking part in social media activity that “negatively affects the public perception” of the department, according to The New Orleans Advocate.
Yet Bakker kept his job after posting on a Proud Boys chat channel, carousing with Proud Boys at a bar and barbecue and failing to tell police he was interviewed by the FBI about his activities.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has since defended the police department’s decision. “Seriously, folks? This Black lesbian is somehow now embracing the racist homophobic Proud Boys? Give me a break,” the mayor tweeted, in response to the criticism.
Maybe Bakker isn’t being embraced by city leaders, but he’s certainly been given a pass.
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