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This month, Houston, Texas was covered in a blanket of snow. Police warned drivers to keep off the roads for their safety since many Texans aren’t used to driving on slick roads. While Houstonians were sheltered in place, Hamon Brown spotted an officer doing donuts in a marked cruiser in an empty parking lot.
He posted it to his Facebook and didn’t expect it to collect the millions of views it did.
“I ain’t really think it was going to go viral like it did,” he told KTRK. Later on, he noted it was a double standard, as many drivers would likely be ticketed by an officer for doing donuts. When he posted that, the Houston Police Officer’s Union quickly responded.
“We are human. We like to have a good time just like they do,” said Doug Griffith, the president of the Police Union. At first, the union responded, “Cops love donuts!” But when his post started attracting more comments circling back to the double standard, the union came back with a vengeance.
The Police Union personally attacked him
At first, they poked fun at the state of his vehicle. They noted duct tape on his windshield and noted that it was ironic he was “preaching about safety” when he had an obstruction on the glass.
Then, they took it a step further and posted videos in the comments section of Brown “ghost riding” out of his car and blocking traffic. The Union also called him a “snitch.”
“He took it a little serious, and then things went off the rails a little bit,” said Griffith. “You can’t do what he does in public and then go and call out others for donuts.”
Brown says he’s worried for his safety following the aggressive responses from the Union on a public forum.
“It is really messing with me because ya’ll posting all my business on social media. Ya’ll are doing a lot to me and getting me real scared,” said Brown. “I ain’t did nothing wrong. Ya’ll were in the wrong.”
Kimberly Dodson, a criminology professor at the University of Houston Clear Lake, noted the Union’s “textbook retaliation” and video of the officers doing donuts could be harmful to the department, too.
“Citizens see that and they are less likely to take the police seriously,” she said.
Griffith defended the officers, saying there was nothing for anyone to be concerned about.
“They know what they did was wrong. It has been taken care of, and for the public to worry about complaining about police officers, there is no concern there. You can complain all you want,” he said. “We don’t go out there hunting people for complaining about police officers. That is not what we do.”
He also noted the taxpayer-funded vehicles didn’t sustain any damage from the officers’ donut runs.