Toronto cops want Board chair out for Facebook remarks

The Toronto Police association is demanding the resignation of Police Services Board chair Alok Mukherjee. (Photo: Torstar News Service) | Photo: Torstar News Service

The Police Association in Canada´s largest city is demanding that the chair of the civilian oversight board step down after he shared a Facebook post about the police killing of Eric Garner in New York City.

In a statement released Friday, the police union claims the message posted to Alok Mukherjee’s Facebook page compares police offers to terrorists.

On Thursday, Mukherjee shared a Facebook message created by the group Occupy Wall Street that reads: “Americans killed by ISIS: 3, Americans killed by Ebola: 2, Americans killed by the police: 500 every year.”

The police association, which has traditionally taken conservative political positions, said the Facebook meme “not only compares police officers to terrorists but implies they are in fact far more dangerous.”

In the bulletin distributed to all the police stations throughout the city, the powerful cop union said Mukherjee has compromised his “objectivity.”

“His sharing of this poster is clearly unprofessional, clearly unethical and clearly seeks to undermine the very people he is paid to oversee. (Alok) Mukherjee has crossed the line. His lack of objectivity indicates he is no longer fit to sit on a police oversight body,” read the statement.

The post has since been removed from Mukherjee’s Facebook page.

A screen capture received of his page included the buzzword “I can’t breathe” – Garner’s dying words as the New York police officer held him down in a chokehold.

Mukherjee had been in conflict with the Toronto police department before. In past years, he has been at odds with police chief Bill Blair and the union over budget matters and racial profiling.

Mukherjee was appointed by City Council to the Toronto Police Services Board on September 28, 2004. In 2004, he accepted the post of Vice-Chair of the Board and in 2005 was promoted Chair. He was reappointed for a following term, making Mukherjee the second longest-serving chair in the Board’s history.

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