Political hit job
I backed Kaep, lost promotion: NYPD sgt.
An outspoken NYPD sergeant says his promotion to lieutenant was blocked Friday because he backed Colin Kaepernick’s protests, the Daily News has learned.
Sgt. Edwin Raymond, who scored No. 26 out of 1,325 sergeants on the lieutenants test, was supposed to be promoted if not for questionable allegations filed by cops in his command regarding his handling of two domestic violence complaints, he says.
“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. “Because of the controversy, a lot of cops criticized him. Me being aligned with him was seen as standing with the enemy.”
Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said the case is yet another example of a double standard ingrained in the NYPD’s 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,” Mullins said. “If this doesn’t appear to be retaliation, then I don’t know what is.”
A three-member panel of two former federal prosecutors and a federal judge is looking broadly into this double standard, as The News has previously reported.
The NYPD declined to comment.
A senior police official said the department received complaints involving Raymond’s conduct in enforcing orders of protection and is looking into the allegations.
“The department takes domestic violence very seriously and is obligated to look at these incidents,” the official said.
Raymond has been outspoken about the issue of NYPD quotas and how they distort the role of police officers.
“Quota-driven brokenwindows policing causes more collateral damage — arrests and summonses for their own sake,” he said. “It doesn’t affect crime.”
Raymond was featured in the documentary Hulu documentary “Crime + Punishment,” released Aug. 24.
The allegations against him date to Sept. 17, 2017. Cops with Public Service Area 2 in Brooklyn North responded to a domestic violence call. The claim is that a woman saw an exboyfriend and called 911. When the cops got there, they checked their phones and saw an order of protection, and Raymond let him go.
“That’s nonsense,” Raymond said.
According to Raymond, what actually happened was that the man was sitting in his vehicle with his current girlfriend when the ex, whom he has three kids with, walked by. She took a bat and broke his car mirror. He fled from the car and called 911. The enraged ex then ran into her mother’s building.
Raymond says he arrived at the scene and spoke with the man, who asked the cop not to arrest her. “She’s the mother of my kids,” the man said. “The damage to my car won’t cost anything.”
Raymond says he told the responding officers not to arrest him. The cops then said the woman has an order of protection against him and wanted to arrest him, according to Raymond. The man also had 20 prior arrests.
Raymond says he made a judgment call — based on the circumstances of the incident that day, there was no reason to arrest him.
“I said, ‘That doesn’t change today’s circumstances,’ ” Raymond said. “It was nonsense. They (the cops) completely manipulated the situation . . . . They turned the woman into the victim.”
Raymond said the cops then went 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 said.
“They are not happy with me. I don’t enjoy having to speak out, but it’s historically what makes the department budge.”