“Officer of the Year” Ismail Kurani will hold the award and the workplace
Ismail Quran receives November 2021 Cleveland Police Officer of the Year Award (via Cleveland Police Facebook)
Adam Credo • September 6, 2022 3:10 p.m
Cleveland Police’s 2019 Officer of the Year will keep his award and his job after a months-long investigation into his anti-Semitic social media posts ended without charges.
Ismail Quran, who was the subject of an investigation by Cleveland police’s internal affairs unit for “inappropriate social media content” that included praise of Adolf Hitler and the terrorist organization Hamas, will retain his post and will not faces any disciplinary consequences, according to information provided by the police department on Tuesday at Free Washington Beacon.
“We are disappointed and disappointed that no charges could be filed against Officer Ismail Quran despite extensive internal investigations by the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP), the City Attorney and the Law Department,” Mayor Justin M. Bibb and the chief of police. Wayne Drummond said in a joint statement. “Officer Kuran’s hateful ends were communicated years before he was hired, making it impossible to successfully enforce discipline.”
Koran will face no consequences and will retain the 2019 officer of the year award. Although the investigation was concluded without punitive action, Bibb and Drummond asserted in their statement that the city has “zero tolerance for hateful and dangerous rhetoric from directed at our Jewish communities. This type of hate speech is a terrible example of explicit bias in our country. Police force. We cannot stress enough that discrimination of any kind, against anyone, will simply not be tolerated.”
Jewish community and pro-Israel groups reacted angrily to the decision, saying the city failed to combat anti-Semitic bias in its police force as violent crimes against Jews skyrocket across the country.
“The lack of any meaningful consequences for the Koran sends a disturbing message — discrimination against Jews is tolerated and justified,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Canary Mission and StopAntisemitism.org said in a joint statement after the city’s decision. Each of the groups was instrumental in publishing Koran’s anti-Semitic posts and notifying Cleveland city officials about them.
“While he is obviously pleased that his anti-Semitism was dismissed on a ‘technicality’, the Jewish community is left to ask – would Officer Kuran still be employed if he had posted other forms of bigotry?” said the groups.
Koran has not publicly apologized for his tweets, which included a “salute to the great Hitler” and messages threatening violence against the Jewish people. He also accused the “Jewish lobby” of running the United States and unleashed profanity-laced slurs against Jewish Twitter users.
Because the tweets were released around 2014, before Kuran was hired by the department in 2018, he was let go, according to the Cleveland Police Department.
“This officer was hired in July 2018, prior to the implementation of key pre-employment, onboarding and training policies,” the police department and mayor’s office said in a statement, adding that in response to the situation, they are deciding new regulations. in place to review social media posts before an individual is hired.
Qur’an was issued only “a non-disciplinary advisory letter” that was placed in his personnel file. “While these actions cannot undo the hurt and anger this officer’s conduct has caused our Jewish community, we hope they illustrate how seriously we take this situation,” the department and city office said.
Jewish advocacy groups say this is not enough to address the seriousness of the Koran’s anti-Semitic tendencies.
“Without action, words of condemnation surrounding anti-Semitism are meaningless and only greenlight further hatred against Jews,” said Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org.
The advocacy groups are demanding “a full public apology from Officer Kuran,” an assurance that “the Cleveland Police Division will rescind all awards given to Officer Kuran,” and a “security statement from the Cleveland Police Division- what the Koran officer does not pose a danger and will not be biased against the Jewish community”.
The organizations say they are primarily concerned that the police department “has not provided any assurances that Officer Koran” will fairly police members of the Jewish community.
