The Fraternal Order of Police is learning what happens after you swing at Reacher. The muscle-bound star of the hit Amazon series, Alan Ritchson, voiced his thoughts about the state of policing during a recent interview. The law enforcement organization did not take it well.
It all started when Ritchson was asked to respond to MAGA trolls who unearthed a photo of him wearing a T-shirt that read “Arrest The Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor.” The actor did not back down from the statement and freely spoke his mind.
“Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can’t really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me,” Ritchson told The Hollywood Reporter. “We should completely reform the way that we do it. I mean, you shouldn’t have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who’s armed with a deadly weapon.”
The official Twitter account for the National Fraternal Order of Police fired back at Ritchson in a mocking post while calling the actor “pampered”:
While Mr. Ritchson gets his face and forehead powdered on set, our officers are out doing a job he doesn’t have the courage to do. While he gets to hear loud pops and have blanks fired at him, our officers feel the heat of the bullets as they pierce their skin. There are no take two’s or take three’s in real life Mr. Ritchson. We have people who want to kill us and we play for keeps. Just another useless Hollywood actor, virtue signaling for attention at the expense of brave police officers around this country.
Go back to your pampered life and let the heroes handle this.
Ritchson will not go back to his pampered life. In fact, he’s going to swing right back. In a post from his verified Instagram account, Ritchson took the fight directly to the FOP as he called them out for their “immature response” and bullying tactics.
“This kind of emotionally immature response is the epitome of what concerns me about law enforcement today,” Ritchson wrote. “If this is how leadership handles a peaceful disagreement, what does life look like for those unseen interactions in the street? How does this shape the character of those police officers looking to management? Do you really want individuals so easily angered, who bully like school children to have a gun and the protection of an untouchable union? I don’t.”
You can see Ritchson’s full statement below: