Cleveland “Officer of the Year” found to have posted inflammatory content about Jews prior to joining police force

A police officer from Cleveland, Ohio, who won an “Officer of the Year” award in 2019, as well as a medal for his service, is apparently being investigated for posting tweets with inflammatory comments about Jewish people prior to his employment by the force.

It is alleged that, between 2011 and 2015, Ismail Quran shared a post that said “Let me salute to Hitler the great,”and tweeted that “Jews run the world lol Facts!” Our owner is Jew [sic],” and “F**k the @ Jews #freepalestine”.

Mr Quran has reportedly been given desk duty and is currently having no contact with the public.

The Cleveland Division of Police Union President, Jeff Follmer, defended Mr Quran, saying: “These tweets are from over a decade ago. He is an amazing police officer…He is an asset to the Cleveland community that he serves.”

The watchdog that initially made Mr Quran’s posts public, Canary Mission, said in a press release: “While we are aware that the dates of Quran’s posts are a few years old, the extreme nature of these hateful posts after he begun his police training, and the fact he is an active police officer is very alarming. They were posted after he had already taken an exam required to become a police officer. As in, he already knew he wanted to become a policeman. Quran was still tweeting things like ‘Scumbag Yahoodi [Jew]’.”

According to the FBI, over 60 percent of hate crimes against a religious minority are motivated by antisemitism. Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on antisemitic incidents throughout the United States.