September 6, 2022

The Cleveland Division of Police announce that they are unable to discipline a police officer over antisemitic tweets because they were posted “years before he was hired” as a police officer.

Canary Mission had uncovered tweets from Officer Ismail Quran that glorified Adolf Hitler, compared Israel to the Nazis, defended Hamas and other statements accusing Jews of “killing all the Palestinians for no reason” and “F— THE ZIONIST JEWS!”  He also was part of a Facebook group honoring al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden in November 2017, per Canary Mission Quran was hired by the Cleveland police in 2018.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Police Chief Wayne Drummond issued a joint statement on August 31 stating: “We are frustrated and disappointed that no charges can be filed against Officer Ismail Quran, despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Prosecutor, and the Law Department. Officer Quran’s hateful offenses were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline. In addition, this officer was hired in July 2018, prior to the implementation of key pre-employment, onboarding and training policies.” They added that “antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or our police department. We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated.” Jeff Follmer, who heads the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, told Cleveland.com that Quran’s social media posts “doesn’t reflect his views now” and “he took responsibility for his actions and is an asset to the community.”

The city has since implemented new hiring measures in light of Canary Mission’s report on Quran, including screening new hires’ social media, implementing a mandatory cultural competency training program as well as a program for officers in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) about violent extremism and hate crimes.

“Officer’s Quran’s past statements were anti-Semitic and reprehensible,” ADL Cleveland Regional Director James Pasch said. “We are heartened by Mayor Bibb’s and Chief Drummond’s condemnation of those hateful remarks and we look forward to partnering with the Mayor and his administration in providing resources and education to the Cleveland Division of Police to ensure systemic change.”

The American Jewish Committee also said in a statement to 3News, “The vicious antisemitic rhetoric used by the officer is unbecoming of any member of law enforcement. While he made those statements prior to joining the CDP, they are inexcusable for anyone who wears the uniform. We thank Mayor Bibb and Chief Drummond for their unequivocal condemnation of such language and for taking steps to ensure that hate and antisemitism have no place in Cleveland.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, Stop Antisemitism and Canary Mission issued a joint statement saying that the Bibbs and Drummond statement was “strong,” they asked if Quran would “still be employed if he had posted other forms of bigotry.” They called for Quran to issue a public apology over his prior tweets and for the Cleveland police to revoke Quran’s 2019 Officer of the Year award as well as assure the Jewish community that Quran will not be biased against them.

The Full Statement:https://t.co/8fwFpeFpfV@StopAntisemites @simonwiesenthal pic.twitter.com/GxE6A6Jo9E

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) September 6, 2022

UPDATE: The city said in a statement to the Journal, “Antisemitism and bigotry are reprehensible and have no place in our community or police department. We have zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a horrible example of explicit bias in our police force. We cannot emphasize strongly enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, simply will not be tolerated.”