Seattle cop tells fellow officers not to enforce stay-home orders. Now he’s on leave
Officer Greg Anderson sat inside his patrol car in the Port of Seattle as he filmed himself saying he felt the need as a member of law enforcement to make his peers ask themselves, “Am I doing the right thing?”
Anderson, a member of law enforcement for 10 years, posted the nearly nine-minute video on Instagram, expressing his belief that stay-at-home orders are unconstitutional and officers arresting or citing people for violating them are trampling on Americans’ rights, KOMO News reported.
“I’ve seen officers nationwide enforcing tyrannical orders against the people,” Anderson says in the video. “I want to remind you regardless of where you stand on the coronavirus, we don’t have the authority to do those things to people just because a mayor or a governor tells you otherwise. We don’t get to violate people’s constitutional rights because someone in our chain of command tells us otherwise. It’s not how this country works.”
In a second video posted about a week later, Anderson said initially, his superiors supported his actions, KIRO 7 reported. But after the video garnered more views - now at over 800,000 - they demanded he take the video down, according to KIRO 7.
Anderson refused to do so and was placed on paid administrative leave, KOMO reported.
“The officer is currently on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. The Port does not comment on pending personnel matters,” Port of Seattle officials said in a statement obtained by KOMO.
Anderson has since doubled-down on the sentiment, saying he regrets nothing in his second video on Instagram.
“I can’t take the video down , because if you listen to my first video, the whole message that I was trying to share with people and impart on them is: If you believe in something in your heart, you have to stand by that conviction - even if it costs you everything,” Anderson says in his second video.
Anderson also made clear in that video that he expects to be fired from the Port of Seattle Police Department.
Chief Rod Covey addressed the issue in a Facebook post on the department’s page, saying that while Anderson has a right to free speech, that right is limited when he is on duty.
“He is clearly a good police officer and an exceptional American. That said, as a police officer wearing one of our uniforms, his right to speech has limitations on which he has been well-trained and that he has understood since joining the policing profession,” Covey wrote. “Greg has always had the ability to express his opinions on what is going on in the country like all other Americans. However, he is not allowed to do so while on duty, wearing our uniform, wearing our badge and while driving our patrol care. Every police officer in the country understands that.”
A GoFundMe page was started in support of Anderson. As of Wednesday afternoon, the page had over $350,000 in donations.