A police officer’s character and conduct while off duty must always be exemplary, thus maintaining a position of respect in the community in which he or she lives and serves. The officer’s personal behavior must be beyond reproach.

— International Association of Chiefs of Police code of ethics

My late grandmother’s favorite piece of advice to me, one I still try mightily to adhere to: “You tell me who you hang out with, and I will tell you who you are.”

It’s not only guilt or praise by association, but also the perception, she would remind me, that could be right or easily misconstrued by others. And you may pay the consequences, rightly or wrongly.

So, consider the following: Can local Twin Cities cops, particularly one mentioned but not named as a defendant in a pending racial-discrimination lawsuit filed by five black Minneapolis police officers, be held responsible for the questionable conduct of associates in an off-duty capacity?

Nearly a dozen Minneapolis and St. Paul cops belong to the Twin Cities chapter of City Heat, a Chicago-based, off-duty law-enforcement motorcycle club. The club Web site’s photo gallery contains, last I looked, pictures of some members wearing recognized symbols of hate and racism on their “colors” vests.

One unidentified member is wearing a KKK cross emblem with an “I’m here for the hanging” patch right below it. Other members wear “No blacks” patches and an assortment of swastikas, Confederate flags, Iron Crosses and other items that hate-crime watchdog groups say are often displayed by members of neo-Nazi or white-supremacist groups.

None of the dozen or so Minneapolis and St. Paul cops who belong to the club’s local chapter is seen in the posted pictures wearing any of the items. That includes Minneapolis police Lt. Robert Kroll, a member of City Heat who says he is “vaguely familiar” with the lawsuit.

But the pictures could become an issue when the lawsuit goes to trial, possibly later this year.

POLICE LIEUTENANT SINGLED OUT

“I am disturbed that these Minneapolis police officers associate with other law-enforcement officers who very publicly and proudly display racist symbols of hate next to their police department badge and patch,” said Minneapolis police Lt. Medaria Arradondo, a 20-year veteran.

Kroll, however, thinks Arradondo and the law firm representing Arradondo and four other black officers in the lawsuit are on a fishing expedition.

“If there were any merit to the lawsuit, it would be able to stand on its own without the far-reaching stretch to an off-duty motorcycle club,” said Kroll, a supervisor in a Northeast Minneapolis police precinct. “Ever hear the phrase ‘throw a lot against a wall and hope something sticks?’ ”

The lawsuit — which names the city, its police force and its chief, Timothy Dolan — alleges that the five cops were wrongly disciplined, stripped of or denied promotions or retaliated against as a result of their race or ethnic origin.

“Over the last approximately 20 years, African-American officers employed by defendant Minneapolis have been subjected to a hostile work environment and have been subjected to disparate treatment and disparate impact on the basis of their race and color, ” the suit claims.

The suit notes that a letter signed “KKK” that every black city cop received in 1992 through the Police Department’s interoffice mail. The letter threatened “each African-American officer’s life.”

The suit also singles out Kroll, who is vice president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, as an alleged example of “racially discriminatory” conduct, and comments made by white officers that are allegedly tolerated by the Police Department.

The suit accuses Kroll of calling Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who is black and Muslim, a terrorist.

“An inspector, a deputy chief of professional standards and a commander of training were present when Kroll made these racist statements, none of whom objected or took any corrective action in response to Kroll’s discriminatory statements,” the lawsuit alleges.

Kroll denied making the statement, but Dolan sent an e-mail to all police employees denouncing the alleged comments as unacceptable and unflattering to the police force.

The dust-up occurred one month after Kroll completed a 20-day suspension for his role in an off-duty fight with a group of civilians.

Also, Kroll was sued in federal court in 1995, accused of beating, choking and kicking in the groin a 15-year-old boy of mixed race while spewing racial slurs. A federal jury cleared him of wrongdoing.

John Klassen and Andrew Muller, lawyers representing the five officers in the lawsuit, promptly informed city officials of Kroll’s connection to City Heat and the questionable pictures after they were alerted to the information several months ago.

“Several organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, confirmed for us that photos on the City Heat Web site showed numerous individuals displaying symbols of the KKK and neo-Nazi hate groups, along with the Confederate flag, nooses, ‘Proud to be White’ and ‘Are you here for the hanging’ patches,” Klassen informed me in an e-mail.

He also added that the law firm obtained a copy of a departmentwide e-mail sent by a Minneapolis cop and City Heat member promoting a fundraising drive sponsored by the group.

“Once white MPD officers started promoting this group in the workplace, it became an issue for trial,” Klassen added. “Ultimately, a federal jury will get to decide whether hateful images published by a group that is being promoted within the MPD are part of a racially hostile workplace. For our clients, these images of hate and intolerance are unacceptable.”

City Heat did not respond to an inquiry made to its Web site.

MISINTERPRETATION?

Kroll said he finds it ironic that he’s named in the lawsuit because he has an “adversarial relationship” with the police administration being sued.

He said the lawyers and others are misinterpreting the pictures he has seen of the questionable items.

He described the “I’m here for the hanging” patch, worn by someone he believes might be a Chicago-area cop, as “some type of inside joke with Chicago.”

“Aren’t you aware of hangings in old Western shows?” Kroll asked. He believes the patch stems from “Beer for My Horses,” a country-western song Kroll says is popular among cops because of its strong law-and-order lyrics.

The song “has reference to taking all the rope in Texas, find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys, hang ’em high in the street,” Kroll said. “Great song — I have the CD.”

As for the rebel flags, “if you travel the South, Confederate flags are quite popular,” Kroll explained. “I think you would have a hard time proving racism. … Again, I have yet to see any hate and racially offensive symbols. The ones you provided me are weak at best.”

SYMBOLS TROUBLING

But the head of one of the nation’s largest groups of police officers of color and the outgoing president of the reputed largest law-enforcement motorcycle club in the world both find the symbols troubling.

“This kind of off-duty association is very dangerous for cops,” said Ronald Hampton, a retired Washington, D.C.-area cop and executive director of the National Black Police Association.

When you “place yourself in those kinds of environments, it cannot help but start sticking with you,” Hampton said. “I don’t believe cops can just separate their sworn duties from their personal feelings or what they choose to do off duty.”

Mike Ripsch, a retired Illinois cop, is the outgoing president of Blue Knights International Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, which has chapters throughout the nation and the world.

Ripsch would not comment directly about the Minneapolis lawsuit, but he reviewed the pictures that appear on the Web site.

“Obviously, the (‘I’m here for the hanging’) patch regarding the African-American can only be interpreted as racist, and we would take action to have it or the person removed,” Ripsch said.

“The question about the Confederate flag … some cities and states in the South still use it as part of their flags, and many consider it a part of their Southern heritage.

“The Maltese Cross or Iron Cross gets a little more dicey and, again, would have to refer to its context,” he added. “To a World War II vet or Holocaust survivor, there is no doubt to its meaning.”

If I were the local cops, I would lobby at the very least to have the club become more restrictive of what club members wear. I keep hearing my grandmother’s advice.

What do you think? Should an off-duty cop’s association with any group be “beyond reproach,” as most police ethics manuals suggest? E-mail me at the address below. Some comments may be published, so include your name and general residence.

Ruben Rosario can be reached at rrosario@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5454.

To read a copy of the racial-discrimination lawsuit filed by five high-ranking black Minneapolis police officers, as well as the city’s response, go to twincities.com.