Durham County Sheriff Disagrees with NFOP Endorsement of Trump

By Cash Michaels –

In Charlotte, NC, the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP) during their annual convention, endorsed Republican candidate Donald J. Trump for president.

The NFOP, which boasts a membership of 373,000 nationwide, issued a statement, saying in part, “Our members carefully considered the positions of the candidates on the issues and there was no doubt—zero doubt—as to who they want as our President for the next four years: Donald J. Trump.”

But African American Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead joined a reported one hundred law enforcement officials nationwide in condemning the NFOP endorsement, saying that the police group was supporting “a convicted felon over a former prosecutor.”

Birkhead is one of seven Black Democratic sheriffs who lead departments in Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Pitt, and Wake counties.

Sheriff Birkhead added that Democratic presidential Vice President Kamala Harris, who was a district attorney in San Francisco, then elected twice as California state attorney general, “… understands the needs of communities like mine, and has always had our back.”

Sheriff Birkhead was part of a Harris-Walz campaign press call, along with former US Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, also an African American, who risked his life defending the Capitol during the infamous January 6, 2021 attack that former president Trump is criminally accused of leading.

That NFOP Trump endorsement came despite the fact that five police officers later died, and about 150 police officers from the Capitol Police and the assisting Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Dept., along with other local agencies, were injured as a result of the January 6 insurrection.

Trump faces four charges for his alleged role in the  Capitol attack. Still, the NFOP, called the nation’s oldest and largest police union, chose to overlook that, as well as the 34 felonies the Republican presidential candidate was convicted of in New York earlier this year in his infamous porn star hush money case. He awaits sentencing on those 34 felony counts after the election.

At presstime, Birkhead was the only North Carolina law enforcement official on record publicly condemning the NFOP Trump endorsement, even though the other six Black sheriffs are also Democrats. No doubt each Black sheriff has been endorsed by their local Black political action committee, a coalition of which came together last week and announced their statewide endorsements last week in the upcoming November 5 general elections.

All of those Black PACS announced their support for the Harris-Walz Democratic presidential ticket, along with Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein for governor and incumbent Jessica Holmes to continue as state auditor.

This is not the first presidential election in which the NFOP has endorsed Donald Trump for president, and the organization has been blasted for it by Black law enforcement members. In September 2016, NFOP first endorsed Donald Trump despite opposition from Blacks in Law Enforcement of America.

In October 2020, then-President Trump, while in office, soft-pedaled the police killing of George Floyd, despite a national outpouring of anger and disgust. The NFOP endorsed Trump for reelection then as well, again to the dismay of many of its Black members who had voiced concerns about how white officers treated citizens in the Black community.

“We are members of these [police] 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,” said Rochelle Bilal, then the immediate past president of the Guardian Civic League of Philadelphia. She called the NFOP’s Trump endorsement an “outrage.”

With this year’s NFOP Trump endorsement, NFOP National President Patrick Yoes said the support for the former Republican president was “overwhelming.”

“During his time at the White House, we had a partner and a leader,” Yoes said before bringing Trump onstage in Charlotte. “Today. Mr President, we stand with you.”