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As if the layoffs of 69 police officers in Cleveland, Ohio weren’t bad enough, one of the cops getting a pink slip was seriously wounded in the line of duty. Cleveland police officer Michael J. Schmitt was shot in the face in 2002 and nearly died, and now is one of the sworn personnel who received a layoff notice two days before last Christmas. Officer Schmitt made a valiant attempt to return to duty, but he no longer was physically able. Since June 2008, he has worked as a police safety aide, assigned to Cleveland’s police academy, where his duties have included talking about the incident where he was shot with new recruits.
The 44-year-old Cleveland officer is one of many officers, in addition to one dispatcher, who received the layoff notice after the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association rejected wage cuts. According to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer by Gabriel Baird, Mayor Frank Jackson wanted officers to accept wage cuts to fill a $23 million deficit in this year’s budget. Cleveland Safety Director Marty Flask said that civil service rules tied the city’s hands regarding the layoff of Officer Schmidt.
Union contracts require that the last person hired is the first person laid off, and Schmidt was the last aide given a job with the department. The layoffs have yet to take effect, and the F.O.P. is actively fighting the layoffs in court. Officer Schmitt came on the job back in September 2000.
The officer-involved shooting occurred two years later, on Aug. 8, 2002. The officers agreed to give a homeless man a ride downtown so he could take a bus to a shelter. But when the officers dropped Hopkins off, he grappled with Schmitt, grabbing his gun and shooting the officer.
The bullet went through Schmitt’s jaw and into his brain. Officer Finau shot Hopkins, killing him. Schmitt remained in critical condition for close to a month. Doctors had to remove part of the right side of his skull. In October 2002, the Silver and Gold of Cleveland gave Schmitt a medal of heroism at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge. The department and the union persuaded Schmitt, who was unable to handle a gun as the result of his injuries, to retire in 2008 from his $44,500-a-year job and take a medical pension.
About six months later, the city rehired Schmitt as a $25,400-a-year police safety aide. “He was hired back because it was the right thing to do,” Safety Director Flask told the Plain Dealer in a recent interview. The worst part is that if Schmitt had not given up his old job, he would have had enough seniority that he would not have been laid off. Schmitt, who is single, “is married to the job,” Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Patrolman Steve Loomis said in an interview.
“You can’t just throw this guy to the wolves.” Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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