Policing

Black Lives Matter RI PAC Protests Against Police Officer’s Reinstatement and LEOBoR

The Black Lives Matter Rhode Island PAC protested against the reinstatement of a police officer who was filmed assaulting a State Senate candidate. The officer faced only a 10-day suspension instead of termination, thanks to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBoR), which the group is now calling for the repeal of.

Rhode Island News: Black Lives Matter RI PAC Protests Against Police Officer’s Reinstatement and LEOBoR

May 1, 2023, 12:08 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

This week, new broke that the City of Providence’s attempt to fire Police Officer Jeann Lugo was overturned by a tribunal consisting only of police officers. Instead, the tribunal decided on a ten-day suspension. In response, the Black Lives Matter RI PAC announced a protest scheduled for Friday evening outside the Providence Public Safety Complex.

The BLM RI PAC has called for the repeal of LEOBoR (Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights) because it allows police officers such as Lugo, who was seen on video punching State Senate candidate Jennifer Rourke at a pro-choice rally held at the Rhode Island State House after the United State Supreme Court overturned their Roe v. Wade decision. Lugo was running against Rourke in the race for the Senate.

After the video surfaced, then Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements called for Lugo’s termination of employment, but before that termination could take place Lugo went to trial for assault, where he was cleared of all charges, and then went before a LEOBoR tribunal, who substituted termination of employment with a 10-day suspension. Lugo will also receive backpay for the days of work he has missed since the assault.

During Friday evening’s protest police officers stood back and watched from outside the Public Safety Complex, with barriers set up to prevent people from approaching the building. Other police officers were stationed by a prisoner transport van.

“We are standing in support of Jennifer Rourke,” said Harrison Tuttle, President of the BLM RI PAC “Because lost in all the conversation around LEOBoR we have a mom, an amazing wife, and just an amazing person overall who was affected by police brutality. [She was] failed by her own city and her own state.”

Turning to LEOBoR, Tuttle said, “there is a bill of rights that is afforded to police officers that give them an extra set of protections, that none of us have.”

Jim Vincent, former President of of the Providence Branch of the NAACP, was introduced as a person who called for the repeal of LEOBoR as part of a Senate Commission examining issue, before Officer Lugo punched a woman at a protest, before Pawtucket Officer Daniel Dolan shot an unarmed teenager while off-duty, and even before it was known that Police Sergeant Joseph Hanley had put his knee on the back of the neck of a handcuffed man.

“It had become apparent to me and about a third of that commission that the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights was not necessary,” said Vincent. “The only New England state that has such a thing is Rhode Island. And only 13 states in the United States have this. So why do we need something other states do not even have?”

“We need to repeal LEOBoR,” said Representative Jennifer Stewart (Democrat, District 59, Pawtucket), who has introduced legislation in the Rhode Island House of Representatives to do just that. “I put the bill in because I care about small ‘d’ democracy, and everything upon which it depends, which includes equality and rule of law.

“It’s going to take a long effort, but we can do it.”

“For the last three years we kept hearing that there’s a will, an appetite for some sort of reform,” said Corey Jones, the former executive director of the BLM RI PAC. “Then, what they failed to mention, is that that reform wouldn’t have done a damn thing for this case [Lugo] and many other cases as well.

“What is a reform if it doesn’t stop a man from punching a Black woman in the face? And I believe we should not let perfect be the enemy of the good, but when there’s no good, it’s not good!”

There are currently three bills making their way through the Rhode Island House. Two of the bills reform LEOBoR to various degrees, and one repeals it. Similar legislation is before the Rhode Island Senate.

Currently, the case of Pawtucket Officer Daniel Dolan, who, while off duty, chased three minors in his car and then shot one of them in the parking lot of a pizza restaurant, is in the LEOBoR process.