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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was published in the Sept. 20 issue of The Spokesman Review.
SPOKANE – A Spokane police officer put a “Let’s Go Brandon” sticker on his police car last year, drawing attention from members of the community and law enforcement, and leading to his firing and the reprimand of fellow officers.
A report issued last month from Spokane’s Office of the Police Ombuds indicates the officer had the sticker, which has become a less vulgar version of “F—- Joe Biden,” on his department- issued vehicle for at least eight weeks in the summer of 2023; the officer bragged to other people that the mayor at the time, Nadine Woodward, complimented the sticker; and that his fellow officers did not report the policy violation.
Spokane police spokesman Daniel Strassenberg confirmed the officer’s name is Bradley Moon, who received a Medal of Merit from the city in 2009 for his work as a commercial vehicle enforcement officer, the city’s website says. He was also the department’s employee of the year in 2005. Records obtained by The Spokesman- Review indicate he was fired May 8.
Efforts to reach Moon were unsuccessful Thursday, Sept. 19.
Spokane Police Guild President Dave Dunkin said he represented Moon, a former union member, throughout the investigative process as required by state law. The guild will not be fighting Moon’s termination, Dunkin said.
The anti-Biden sticker was reportedly first seen on Moon’s car on Aug. 22, 2023, according to the report. In one case, when a member of the public confronted the officer about having a political sticker on his car, he told her it wasn’t political and to “get a life and find something better to do,” the report states.
Three days later, Moon told a fellow officer that “Nadine (Woodward) liked my sticker” and told another officer that Woodward had seen the sticker, and that Moon expected he “would probably get in trouble for it,” according to the report. A third officer saw the sticker and told Moon it was “nice” and laughed.
Woodward also did not respond to a phone call Thursday afternoon.
When the department was first made aware of the situation in October 2023, Moon told internal investigators he was unaware of the political implications of the sticker and claimed he bought it in support of another officer’s son, Brandon, who suffered a “medical event” in high school, even though Brandon recovered and is now a collegiate athlete, the report states.
When investigators questioned other officers about the sticker, they indicated they were aware of the political meaning behind it, even though Moon had told them that wasn’t how he interpreted it.
When asked why he didn’t put the sticker on his personal vehicle instead, Moon replied, “I have no idea,” the report states.
Six officers who knew about the sticker were interviewed, according to the report.
One of the officers quoted in the report said they’ve seen several officers put stickers on department cars to make it look less like a police car. Another officer, a sergeant, said he was “aware of the derogatory meaning of ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ toward President Biden, but did not give it much thought at the time.”
Four supervisors of Moon were reprimanded for failing to address the issue when it was first brought to light, the report indicates. The ombudsman also found Moon issued false or misleading statements and participated in prohibited speech, both city and department policy violations.
The investigation was forwarded to the department’s Administrative Review Panel in January. The panel found the sticker is “clearly a political sticker that damages the reputation of SPD,” the report states, and “regardless of policy, it is common sense that there is no justification for placing such a sticker or phrase on a city owned vehicle.”
The panel continued: “The sticker was obviously inappropriate and should have been recognized by any supervisor as a violation of department policy.
At a minimum, any supervisor should have recognized that a sticker with that kind of political messaging would be harmful to SPD’s reputation. ‘Not all of the supervisory failures were equal in nature, but they were failures nonetheless.’”
