Cleveland Division of Police officer Ismail Quran. Photo: Screenshot.

The internal affairs office of the Cleveland Division of Police is investigating an officer who tweeted antisemitic tirades, a department spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

The posts — which included one that said, “Let me salute to Hitler the great” — were tweeted between 2011 and 2015 by Officer Ismail Quran and revealed by Canary Mission, an antisemitism watchdog that tracks antisemites in the public sphere. The group noted that Quran was previously named as the CDP’s “Officer of the Year” in 2019.

“The Cleveland Division of Police insists that officers provide the highest levels of professionalism and respect to all citizens,” CPD Sergeant Jennifer Ciaccia told local CBS affiliate WKBN 27. “Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.”

Quran has reportedly been placed on desk duty.

“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,” Canary Mission said. “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].”

Cleveland Division of Police union president Jeff Folmer came to Quran’s defense however, telling the outlet that he is “an asset to the Cleveland community that he serves.”

“These tweets are from over a decade ago,” Folmer said. “He is an amazing police officer. Ismail was policeman of the year in 2019 and assisted in many investigations.”

Canary Mission maintained that Quran is “not fit for his position,” adding that the “tweets were live on his account until Canary Mission exposed them last Thursday.”

On Friday, Cleveland Jewish News reported that Quran was previously a member of a Facebook group “honoring Osama bin Laden” and had once said on Twitter, “who bothering ya!!!! Let me at em! Lol if it’s a Jew give me their @ and I’ll do it.”

James Pasch, regional director of the Anti-Defamation’s League’s Cleveland office (ADL), told Cleveland Jewish News, which first broke the story, that Quran’s social media activity was “horrific and antisemitic.”

“If the allegations are accurate, we would expect the Cleveland Police Department to handle those allegations appropriately. And at ADL, we’ll also look into the online statements,” Pasch said.