(photo credit: NY DAILY NEWS screenshot)
A Black officer of the New York Police Department said he was denied a promotion because of his support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Sergeant Edwin Raymond was set to be promoted on Friday to lieutenant, the New York Daily News reported. However, his promotion was thrown out of the window after officers allegedly received complaints about Raymond’s handling of a domestic violence incident.
The sergeant who scored No. 26 out of 1,325 sergeants on a lieutenant’s test called the NYPD on their bluff and said “it is unfortunate.”
“I did a press conference in support of Colin Kaepernick, using his status to put a spotlight on issues in policing that need to be fixed,” Raymond, 33, told the news outlet. “Because of the controversy a lot of cops criticized him. Me being aligned with him was seen as standing with the enemy.”
Sergeant Raymond and other law enforcement officials held a rally on August 19, 2017, at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn in support of Kaepernick’s stance on social injustice.
A senior police official said they’re looking into the complaints made against Raymond’s claiming that he failed to enforce orders of protection during a domestic dispute.
“The department takes domestic violence very seriously and is obligated to look at these incidents,” the official stated.
The allegations stemmed from a Sept. 2017 incident where a woman saw her ex-boyfriend and called 911. She reportedly had an order of protection against him and the cops saw the order, but Raymond made the call to let the man go.
“That’s nonsense,” said Raymond. “They (the cops) completely manipulated the situation…They turned the woman into the victim.”
The officers reported the incident of Raymond’s alleged misconduct to Internal Affairs.
“These cops went thinking the numbers would give their claims more plausibility, and unfortunately the department is choosing to entertain this and use it as a dagger to end my promotion,” Raymond noted. “They are not happy with me. I don’t enjoy having to speak out, but it’s historically what makes the department budge.”
The president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins told the news publication that the NYPD has a history of selective bias against certain officers when it comes to their disciplinary system.
“Decisions are made on the sly, and there are people who have pending charges and still get promoted, and others whose promotions are held back for reasons that are never explained,” said Mullins. “If this doesn’t appear to be retaliation, then I don’t know what is.”
The NYPD, on the other hand, has declined to comment on the matter.
