It’s the wrong ‘Oath’
Cop on riot-day cam with far-right militia
An NYPD officer was caught on camera palling around with longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and some members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia outside a Washington, D.C., hotel hours before the deadly U.S. Capitol siege, the Daily News has learned.
Salvatore Greco, 38, a 12-year NYPD veteran, shows up in the background of a the video of Stone talking to fans outside the Willard InterContinental hotel in D.C. on Jan. 6. The video was first aired on ABC but didn’t identify Greco.
Dressed in a black suit with a ponytail and not wearing a mask, Greco is talking on a cell phone, the video shows, while chatting with three unidentified people. A few feet away, Stone is flanked by masked Oath Keepers member working as his security. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also makes a brief appearance in the footage.
After The News made an inquiry Monday, the NYPD said its Internal Affairs Bureau was conducting an investigation into the connection between Greco and Stone.
Under the NYPD
Patrol
Guide, cops are barred from associating with people believed to be engaged in or known to have engaged in criminal activities. The guide also bars cops from associating with organizations that advocate hatred.
Stone was found guilty in 2020 of witness tampering and lying to Congress stemming from the investigation into whether the campaign of former President Donald Trump coordinated with Russia to affect the 2016 election.
Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month sentence in July and pardoned him Dec.
23.
Congressional investigators are looking into whether Stone had any role in planning the unrest that swept over the Capitol, leaving five dead, including a police officer, dozens injured and parts of the seat of government in shambles.
The News learned of Greco’s presence through another NYPD cop who was appalled that one of his own would involve himself with events in D.C.
“The whole Jan. 6 thing is infuriating,” the cop said. “Anyone involved directly or indirectly should not be on this job.”
In a post last August after Trump commuted his sentence, Stone gave a shoutout to Greco among dozens of other supporters.
“I would be remiss without mentioning … NYPD officer Sal Greco who helped when off duty and Enrique Tarrio my old friend,” Stone wrote in part in an Aug. 3 post titled “President Trump’s Act of Mercy and Justice.”
Tarrio is a leader of the far-right Proud Boys. He was arrested Jan. 4 on charges of burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the nation’s capital Dec. 12. He was also charged with possession of two high-capacity assault rifle magazines when he was busted.
Greco declined to comment to The News. Stone also declined to comment.
A source familiar with the situation said Greco was there as a guest of Stone, and that they’re friends, adding that making an issue of the Oath Keepers’ presence is basically “guilt by association in the most dishonest way.”
Greco stayed at the hotel Jan. 6 and didn’t go to the Capitol, that source and a second source said. Greco left the same day.
The source said the NYPD has interviewed Greco; the outcome is unclear.
On Jan. 11, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the department was investigating one cop for taking part in Jan. 6 events at the Capitol. That officer has never been identified; Shea hasn’t provided an update.
“I can tell you that anyone committing crimes, certainly, will have a very short shelf life with the NYPD,” the commissioner said at the time.
Records show Greco earned $138,728 in 2020 — including roughly $50,000 in overtime, substantially more than most cops earn in OT in a given year.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Oath Keepers as one of the “largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S.” Three Oath Keeper members were indicted Jan. 27 for conspiracy to obstruct Congress and other charges related to the Capitol riot.
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s new military rulers Monday signaled their intention to crack down on opponents of their takeover, issuing decrees that effectively banned peaceful public protests in the country’s two biggest cities.
The restrictive measures were ordered after police fired water cannons at hundreds of protesters in the Myanmar capital, Naypyitaw, who were demanding the military hand power back to elected officials. It was just one of many demonstrations around the country.
Rallies and gatherings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, were banned, and an 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew was imposed for areas of Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s largest and second-largest cities, where thousands of people have been demonstrating since Saturday.
Protesters in Yangon rallied Monday at a major downtown intersection raising three-finger salutes that are symbols of resistance and carrying placards saying, “Reject the military coup” and “Justice for Myanmar.”
There were also demonstrations in towns in the north, southeast and east of the country.
The decrees enabling the new restrictive measures were issued on a township-by-township basis, and were expected to be extended to other areas as well. They say they were issued in response to people carrying out unlawful actions that harm the rule of law, a reference to the protests.
The growing wave of defiance — particularly in Naypyitaw, where such protests are unusual — was striking in a country where demonstrations have been met with severe force in the past. That resistance was happening in Naypyitaw, whose population includes many civil servants and their families, spoke to the level of anger among people who had only begun to taste democracy in recent years after five decades of military rule.
“We do not want the military junta,” said Daw Moe, a protester in Yangon. “We never ever wanted this junta. Nobody wants it. All the people are ready to fight them.”
The coup came the day newly elected lawmakers were supposed to take their seats in Parliament after November elections. The generals have said that vote was marred by fraud — though the country’s election commission has dismissed that claim.
State media for the first time Monday made reference to the protests, claiming they were endangering the country’s stability.
“Democracy can be destroyed if there is no discipline,” declared a statement from the Ministry of Information, read on state television station MRTV. “We will have to take legal actions to prevent acts that are violating state stability, public safety and the rule of law.”
However, the military commander who led the coup and is now Myanmar’s leader made no mention of the unrest in a 20-minute televised speech Monday night, his first to the public since the takeover.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing instead repeated the claims about voting fraud that have been the justification for the military’s takeover, allegations that were refuted by the state election commission. He added that his junta would hold new elections as promised in a year and hand over power to the winners, and explained the junta’s intended policies for COVID-19 control and the economy.
The growing protests recall previous movements in the Southeast Asian country’s long and bloody struggle for democracy. On Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters rallied at Yangon’s Sule Pagoda, which was a focal point of demonstrations against military rule during a massive 1988 uprising and again during a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks. The military used deadly force to end both of those uprisings.