Summit County Sheriff Steve Barry is under fire after he published a monthly newsletter depicting the county’s SWAT team posing with presidential candidate Donald Trump while carrying military-like rifles.
Among several complaints, Akron NAACP President Judi Hill accused Barry of endorsing a candidate using the October issue of the publicly funded Summit County Shield newsletter.
“I don’t care who you support, but this picture used my funds to support a candidate,” Hill said. “That’s why I have a problem with this.”
Contacted Monday, Barry said the photo was not intended as an endorsement of Trump, the Republican nominee. In fact, Barry — a Democrat — said he doesn’t support Trump.
“I am a Democratic public official in Summit County,” he said. “I support the Democratic Party.”
Barry said the photo on the newsletter cover was meant to recognize the work of his SWAT team, which was called by the Secret Service to protect Trump during a campaign visit in August. Barry also appeared in the photo, as did former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who serves as an adviser to Trump.
“No candidate, no VIP, to my knowledge has ever taken the time to take a picture with the guys who do the work,” said Barry, who’s worked with the sheriff’s office since the 1970s. “This had nothing to do with politics. It was my way of publicly giving credit to my guys.”
Trump also posed for photos with Akron police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Barry said.
Lawyers contacted by the Beacon Journal disagreed on the legality of publishing the photo in a taxpayer-funded newsletter so close to the Nov. 8 election.
Facebook page
Barry said the photo would have been published in the newsletter’s September edition, but it had already been printed when the picture was taken. The photo was, however, posted to the sheriff’s Facebook page on Aug. 29.
In the caption on the Facebook post, the sheriff described the photo’s significance.
“Regardless of one’s political point of view,” the caption read, “it is the responsibility of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office to be ready, willing, and able to protect any dignitary at any time.”
The only explanation with the newsletter photo was a caption that read, “Trained for the task, ready for the word.” The phrase, accompanied by armed, all-white deputies, sparked concern.
Hill described the photo as “undermining” trust between police and the community — especially the black community. The “paramilitary appearance,” as Hill described the image, left her shaken.
“I don’t know what ‘word’ they’re referring to,” she said, “but it does not feel like something someone would say if they’re trying to protect me.”
Barry explained that the “word” referred to orders given to SWAT teams in times of crisis.
Diversity questioned
Hill said the photo also concerned her because of the lack of diversity depicted: All 18 people depicted are white men. Barry said the photo did not include every member of his SWAT team — just the ones on duty that day.
Trump’s presence in the photo also drew concerns in part because his opponents have viewed some of his policies as racist. Trump has advocated “stop-and-frisk” policing tactics that courts ruled disproportionately targeted minorities. He also has described Black Lives Matter protesters as “threats” to the safety of communities, and he drew criticism at Sunday night’s presidential debate for appearing to assume a black audience member lived in the “inner city.”
Hill said the racial aspect in the photo is important because Akron is similar to communities that have drawn national attention following white police shooting and killing black men. She described Akron as especially similar to Ferguson, Miss., where 18-year-old Michael Brown — an unarmed black man — was shot and killed by a white officer in 2014.
“I’ve said on numerous occasions that in places like Akron, we’re only an incident away from a Ferguson situation,” Hill said.
She advocated earlier this year for greater representation of the black community on the sheriff’s police force. Police forces in Ferguson and other cities where riots have occurred also were not representative of populations there, she said.
Black supervisors
Barry said in July that he’d hire more black deputies if qualified candidates applied. On Monday, he said his office has several black supervisors.
He said race isn’t the issue at hand regarding the newsletter.
“This has nothing to do with race. This has to do with giving [the SWAT team] credit,” he said. “This was supposed to be a very positive thing. I’m sorry that people took it the way they did. If they took it as any other message than that I’m proud of my SWAT team, I apologize for that.”
He said he can understand how the photo might look like an endorsement, but it wasn’t intended that way.
“I see now why people would take it that way,” he said, “but that never crossed my mind.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ngfalcon.