150 Minneapolis Cops File Disability Claims for PTSD, Which They Attribute to George Floyd Protests

The mendacity of police officers never ceases to amaze me, not to mention the extensive luxuries they get to enjoy as a result of tax-payer money.

As The Washington Post reports, 150 police officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have started the process of filing disability claims that will allow them to leave the force and still receive pay, on the basis that they are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The cause of their newfound disability? The protests against George Floyd’s gruesome killing by Minneapolis police.

From The Washington Post:

Half of those officers are no longer on the job because they have exhibited symptoms of PTSD, according to Ron Meuser Jr., a Twin Cities personal injury attorney who is representing the officers. The other half likely will quit working in coming days as they formalize disability claims with the city, Meuser said Friday.

“While law enforcement is a high-stress career, the last two months in Minneapolis have pushed many officers to their breaking point,” Meuser said.

The officers say the protests — which came in response to Floyd’s death during a police encounter, when an officer pressed down on top of him while he pleaded for help and said he couldn’t breathe — have deeply affected them.

Mueser, the lawyer representing the officers, says there will likely be an increase in the number of Minneapolis cops filing disability claims for PTSD from the protests. So far, about 20 percent of the force has indicated that they are traumatized and unable to work.

The Minneapolis Police Department has said that none of their officers have suffered serious injuries during the protests that sparked in the city before spreading to the rest of the country, but that hasn’t stopped the personal injury lawyer from ratcheting up the narrative that cops are victims.

According to Mueser, some of his clients fearfully counted their ammunition during the Minneapolis protests to make sure they would have a bullet for themselves to avoid being beaten to death.

I would laugh at the hyperbole if I wasn’t so disgusted. Instead, I’ll just say that we have seen no evidence of people beating cops to death, but we have seen copious videos of cops doing everything from beating people to kneeling on their neck until they’re dead.

Anyway, Mueser says his cop clients are seriously traumatized by having to watch citizens exercise their constitutional right to protest.

“I’m seeing PTSD symptoms of officers with highly diminished capacity to live and socialize, extraordinary rates of divorce, and alcohol dependency – just to cope,” he said in a statement. “It is an emotional crisis that cannot and should not continue.”

Police officers in Minneapolis stand to collect permanent payments of between 45 to 60 percent of their base salary, according to a helpful disability benefits FAQ on Mueser’s website that is appropriately headed with a black and blue version of the American flag.

This is cop country, I guess, and the rest of us are just paying for it.