Page 28 - Florida Sentinel 10-23-20

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Black Police Officers Split With Unions That Have Endorsed Trump Campaign
Emails Threatening Florida
Police unions and their sup- porters across the country have largely thrown their support behind Donald Trump’s re- election campaign. Bolstered by the president’s “law and order” musings at campaign rallies, not every member of law en- forcement is in tune with the messaging. Some Black police officers are breaking rank, say- ing that their voices haven’t been heard.
Trump has long used the massive demonstrations over police violence that have taken place much of this year to fuel his campaign. He continues to push the agenda that police are not being supported by Demo- cratic politicians, who secretly wish to leave urban areas in chaos. That perspective has earned him the backing of unions like the Police Benevo- lent Association in New York, Chicago’s Fraternal Order of
color and police misconduct, are speaking out, saying the en- dorsements of these unions does not mean that every mem- ber is in alignment.
“We are members of these unions, and they don’t take into consideration our feelings about Donald J. Trump, then they don’t care about us and ... they don’t care about our dues,” Rochelle Bilal, recent past president of the Guardian Civic League of Philadelphia said, according to the Associ- ated Press. She spoke to re- porters earlier this month along with other Black police groups which say their concerns over Trump’s remarks which have been criticized as racist, sexist and as white supremacist dog- whistles. The Guardian Civic League has told its members, numbering about 1,200, to be ready to withdraw their dues from the National FOP.
Trump Or Else!’ Linked
Voters To ‘Vote For
BLACK OFFICERS UNION
Police Lodge 7, and the Na- tional Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest police union.
But organizations of Black police officers, which have ad- vocated against use of deadly force, abuse against people of
WASHINGTON — Dozens of voters in a heavily Demo- cratic county in Florida and across several states reported receiving emails on Thursday purporting to come from a right-wing group threatening to "come after" them unless they vote for President Trump.
But an examination of the messages, which are now under investigation by state and federal authorities, shows they were sent via servers lo- cated overseas, raising ques- tions about their origin amid concerns about voter intimi- dation just two weeks before Election Day.
Democratic voters in Alachua County, Florida, began receiving the email on Tuesday morning, and voters in Alaska and Arizona also re- ported receiving the message. Early voting began in Florida on Monday. The emails ap- peared to come from the right-wing group The Proud Boys, and showed a "from" address of info@official- proudboys.com. The Proud Boys has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights advocacy group.
"Vote for Trump or else!" the email's subject line pro- claimed.
"We are in possession of all
your information (email, ad- dress, telephone... every- thing)," the message stated. "You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you."
While at first glance the email seems to come from an account under the domain of a website affiliated with The Proud Boys, a review of the source code embedded in seven emails reviewed by CBS News shows the message originated from IP addresses linked to servers located in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Estonia.
To Overseas Servers
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