NYPD Sergeant Says Promotion Was Denied Due To His Support Of Colin Kaepernick

According to The Daily News, an NYPD sergeant is claiming his promotion was denied  Friday due to his support for Colin Kaepernick. 

Sgt. Edwin Raymond, 33, said he was scheduled to be promoted until cops under him reported allegations regarding his handling of two domestic violence complaints.

“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 claimed. “Because of the controversy a lot of cops criticized him. Me being aligned with him was seen as standing with the enemy.”

Raymond scored No. 26 out of 1,325 sergeants on his lieutenants’ test. 

Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said the case is yet another example of a double standard and criticized 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.”

Two former federal prosecutors and a federal judge are looking currently looking into the case. A senior police official said the department received complaints about Raymond’s conduct in enforcing orders of protection and an investigation is pending. 

“The department takes domestic violence very seriously and is obligated to look at these incidents,” the official said. 

The NYPD declined to comment. 

Raymond was featured in the documentary “Crime and Punishment,” where he talked about quota-driven cops manipulating their power.

“Quota-driven broken windows policing causes more collateral damage — arrests and summonses for their own sake. It doesn’t affect crime,” said Raymond. 

The allegations against him refer to an incident Sept. 17, 2017. Police in Brooklyn North responded to a domestic violence call claiming that a woman saw an ex-boyfriend and called 911. When the cops got there, they checked their phone and saw an order of protection, yet Raymond let him go anyway.

Raymond says that story is false. He claims the man was sitting in his vehicle with his current girlfriend when the ex, and mother of his three children, walked by. She took a bat and bashed in his car mirror. The man fled from the car and called 911. The angry ex then ran inside to her mother’s building.

Raymond says when he arrived, he 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 gave the message to responding officers not to arrest him. The cops then said the woman has an order of protection against him and wanted to arrest him anyway. The man has been arrested 20 times prior. 

“It was nonsense,” Raymond says. They (the cops) completely manipulated the situation…They turned the woman into the victim.”

“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 claims. “They are not happy with me. I don’t enjoy having to speak out, but it’s historically what makes the department budge.”