But for Concepcion, the man who alleged police abused their authority pulling him over in 2016, thats exactly the kind of work Holyoke and other cities should be doing. Roca said that as a result, supervisors have given him a bad image that has influenced others in the department. var sellablestring = "GAZETTE STAFF"; Based on the report, Police Chief David Pratt suspended Roca for five days and recommended that the citys mayor terminate him. Roca also said he wasnt surprised he was fired, but expressed disappointment that no city, state or federal officials fully investigated his allegations, according to the Gazette. Iowa Police Chief arrested after selling black market military machine guns, "I'm a Cop" is a classic horror comic using real-life quotes from police departments, Transform your ideas into unique art with this CES-featured, AI art tool, now on sale for $49.99, Safely organize your devices and chargers with the CES-featured Bento Stack Charge 8000, Start your musical journey with the Populele Smart Ukulele, now only $159.99, Terms var currentLocation = window.location; The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Roca also told the newspaper he plans to file a lawsuit over how he was treated. NEPM also contacted all of the police officers mentioned in this story via email or phone. They took my gun and my badge and kicked me out of the email system, Roca toldMasslive.comon Monday. //var LBtag_id = document.getElementById('buylinkLBHolyokePD-hg031021,ph1'); It was originally published by New England Public Media. But some will be missing, Mass. They kept trying to use the grabbing of the genitals to kind of quiet me down as a form of punishment and pain, Concepcion said. Murphy didnt have to answer to anybody. But he said other studies have found that civilian review boards have a minimal effect on accountability. Yeah they didnt waste any time. He said cities would have to go all in to train civilians to do that work. According to the Holyoke Fire Department, at approximately 8:30 p.m . She wrotethat she believed Rocas public statements to be untruthful and self-serving, and that he made them with the intent to defame the Holyoke Police Department.. And thats the ultimate way of holding police accountable from the commissions perspective.. var photocredit = photocredit.toUpperCase(); They want to send a message to other officers: Dont be like Roca, because this is exactly whats going to happen to you., Febo said in a statement released Tuesday that it is not standard practice for police departments to comment on issues that have an ongoing personnel investigation for violations of policy. After Customers Paid Large Deposits for Home Projects, Contractor Files for Bankruptcy, How Much Snow Has Fallen in Your Area So Far, The House Where JonBenet Ramsey Was Found Dead Is Listed for Sale at Nearly $7M, FIRST ALERT: Wintry Mix Keeps Falling as Storm Hits New England (Live Radar). If that doesn't work, move to step 2: literally shoot the messenger He saidthat ultimately there was sufficient cause to terminate Roca. In one 2013 complaint, for example, a civilian alleged they watched police officer Charles Monfett pull up next to his brother in his police cruiser and hand him a bag of pot., We also overheard how it was just recovered from someone at Jones Point, the complaint alleges. When the state Legislature passed its police reform bill, state Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Ashland, described the legislation as a necessary first step towards achieving systemic change through law enforcement accountability and transparency.. Febo addresses the allegation that minority officers are not given opportunity for specialized assignments, as Roca said in his video that minorities are underrepresented in specialized positions. The 69 complaints that NEPM obtained are just the ones that civilians managed to file with the HPD in the first place. //LBtag_id.innerHTML = ''; Citizens in Holyoke, Colorado should be aware of illegal activities surrounding police brutality among their police departments and take actions against them. Daily Hampshire Gazette. Youre supposed to act a certain way, talk a certain way. HOLYOKE, Mass. The outstanding efforts of the men and women of the police department have resulted in a reduction in crime over the last two years. When. Boing Boing uses cookies and analytics trackers, and is supported by advertising, merchandise Daily Hampshire Gazette. The reality is my community policing cops got a tip and they followed up on it, Neiswanger told The Republican at the time. TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious plan to overhaul the country's legal system, as the governm Jorge Monsalve. Leon Davis, Springfield Police Department. (They) never investigated any of my allegations to see if I was lying, he said. Ill probably lose my job, but Im good. The five-year Holyoke Police officer who posted the video, Rafael Roca, explained in the beginning, that he wanted to expose the corruption and the lies and the injustice he felt was taking place within the department. '"; According to Roca, supervisors in the department have lied on the stand. In fact, a year later, Valentin filed a civilian complaint against an HPD officer over his rudeness to her at the scene of a car crash involving her wife treatment Valentin alleged was related to her political stances. Graduated from 36th Massachusetts Police Officer . A Massachusetts police officer who posted a video online alleging corruption within his department says he has been placed on paid administrative leave after refusing to take. Moriarty, the president of the HPDs supervisors union, said at a press conference held specifically to address Maldonado Velezs comments. I stand behind the video and what I said in it.. var sellablestring3 = "STAFF FILE PHOTO"; Officer Rafael Roca posted a 43-minute video early Sunday morning that drew a wave of online attention after Roca accused Febo of being corrupt by looking the other way from certain officers misbehavior, while remaining intent on punishing others. Roca said Monday that he wasnt surprised to have been fired, though he said he was disappointed that no city, state or federal authorities fully investigated his allegations. The police are policing themselves., Maldonado Velez is not the first city councilor who has come under fire from Holyokes police unions. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. The HPDs top brass did not respond to numerous requests for comment on this story. //LBtag_id.innerHTML = ''; The youths, Reyes report alleged, were Blood gang members who were under surveillance for their possible involvement in a shooting involving a school bus on the previous day. He said the cars possibly armed occupants made furtive movements and refused to show their hands, and that the officers on scene denied making the remarks Concepcion alleged. In March, Roca was placed on suspension after his video, which has over 56,000 views, accused officers of false overtime pay, protecting each other from punishment after misconduct and creating a culture of racism and favoritism, especially with promotions. One officer was accused of using his siren at a drive-thru window to get his ice cream more quickly. The HPD is not the only local department that rarely disciplines officers based on civilian complaints. Coughlin has been living large on his State Police pension of $131,961 a year. At the end of the video, Roca went on to tell viewers to seek accountability from elected officials. 540K subscribers in the Bad_Cop_No_Donut community. Locally, the city of Pittsfield has a Police Advisory and Review Board. Not a single person from City Hall or city government reached out at all, he said. In his own time, he said that he witnessed classmates incarcerated as part of the school-to-prison pipeline.. I stand by the integrity of the men and women of the Holyoke Police Department and I welcome any outside agency that would like to look into any of the alleged allegations from the video, he said in a statement. In this still from a video Roca posted to YouTube on March 7, 2021, Roca alleges there is corruption and racism in the Holyoke Police Department. I kept yelling that they were violating our rights and they continued to search my vehicle against my will. NEPM has obtained a decades worth of civilian complaints against HPD officers and the departments own internal investigations of them. Tensions soared last fall between some Holyoke residents and the HPD amid a debate in the City Council over the departments desire to purchase the controversial gunfire-location technology ShotSpotter. I want to ensure the citizens of Holyoke that they can continue to have confidence in the men and women of the Holyoke Police Department and the great work that they do every day, he wrote. When Massachusetts lawmakers passed a sweeping police reform law in late 2020, one of the bills provisions opened up law enforcement misconduct investigations to greater scrutiny under the states public records law. Roca said he did speak to both the attorney generals office and FBI at the same time, but that there was no subsequent follow-up from them. Thats according to William Terrill, a professor at Arizona State University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. //LBtag_id.innerHTML = ''; Murphy said in a phone interview Monday that he felt no pressure from anyone to terminate Roca before he left office. 'Officer shuffle': Some ousted cops find jobs at new departments in Mass. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected the youngest mayor of Holyoke at age 22. One complaint for rudeness was not sustained by an investigation. No probable cause, there was no weapons, there was no reason to assume there were weapons., An officer told him to shut my mouth or much more than my rights would be violated, Concepcion wrote in a complaint he later filed with the police department. Becoming a police officer was his "life long dream" but that dream was "quickly affected" and "hurt" by the corruption and racism of police officers, which "goes back to as long as anyone can remember. tag_id.innerHTML = ''; if (photocredit.indexOf(sellablestring) > -1 || photocredit.indexOf(sellablestring2) > -1 || photocredit.indexOf(sellablestring3) > -1 || photocredit.indexOf(sellablestring4) > -1) { Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. }. Some people who filed a complaint with the HPD said that officers actions impacted their lives long after the alleged misconduct took place. He said that the officer had allegedly been instructed to give him remedial training on how to apply a tourniquet. This, he said, was a result of an incident in late January in which he had responded to an incident that resulted in a stabbing and been praised by his coworkers. I said Im sorry but, respectfully, I refuse to take it down.. Following Rocas allegations, the Gazette obtained and analyzed Holyoke Police Department records tracking overtime pay and hours. Pyle told NEPM that police departments and other public agencies will continue to withhold records or slow-roll their release until lawmakers improve the states public records law, which many have criticized as one of the least transparent in the country. Project Advances, What Happened to the Money?' The man, whose name the department redacted, said Leahy accused him of raising a handgun as he crossed the street in front of Leahys cruiser. But the police reform bill changed that, clarifying that those investigations are not personnel records. of YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. One is a female who is being trained to investigate sensitive crimes involving children, females and domestic violence. That is roughly 75% of minority officers with 8 years or more [of experience] in specialized assignments. Febos statement added, The Holyoke Police Department has a Chief, 2 Lieutenants, and 4 Sergeants who are minority in the department command staff.. It should be known as Corrupt City," he said in the video. Amid Pandemic, Boston Loses Title as Country's Worst City for Traffic, Biden Hopes to Boost Offshore Wind as Mass. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). Of the remaining 34 non-minority officers in this group, 18 are in a specialized assignment. Subscribe Today, Amherst Police Chief Livingstone stepping down in May, Unions: UMass putting 100 jobs in jeopardy with privatization plan, Murdaughs fall from grace ends in life sentence for murder, Biden leaving room to change his mind on reelection. tag_id.innerHTML = ''; Febo said that Roca misportrayed some examples of lost or stolen weapons. Neiswanger said that a tipster found the gun in an alley, and that the mayors presence was a coincidence. In 2016, Irving Concepcion says the Holyoke police pulled him over with their guns drawn, yanked him out of his car and slammed him down on the hood. HOLYOKE A Holyoke police officer said he has been suspended after posting a lengthy video online alleging widespread corruption and racism within the police department. Service, a Creative Commons Holyoke Massachusetts & Pennsylvania Legal Representation. Months later, on Nov. 10, then acting mayor Terence Murphy followed Pratts recommendation, firing Roca after a city lawyer determined that there was just cause, the Gazette reported. Roca also took issue with the fact that a Nov. 5 hearing on his case took place at City Hall without him. Youre immediately going into this intimidating environment and youre having to go up to the desk sergeant asking for this, and then youre put on ice and made to sit there, Terrill said. N/A civilian complaints of police misconduct. Roca said he was suspended for violating the departments social media policy, which bars officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. I speak to citizens, I speak to former police officers, retired police officers and they all say corruption and racism has taken place within this department for as long as anyone can remember., In an interview with the Gazette, Roca said that after posting the video which had more than 27,000 views days after it was posted a police department captain called him to say that Police Chief Manny Febo was ordering him to remove the video. Rafael Roca, a former US Marine who became a Holyoke, MA police officer in 2016, released this 43-minute video on Sunday exposing the corruption in his department. Get the latest news on COVID-19 delivered to you. I am a Latino. With that said, I will not be commenting on the internal personnel matter that is ongoing.. Howie Carr: What's so urgent in Holbrook, Mr. Speaker? The city settled that lawsuit for $65,000 in 2020. Uploaded By Greenpalace1. He was deployed in 2009-2010 to Iraq where he assisted military police . He said he was in the hospital due to stress from the situation. He said that he saved the state troopers life, only to be treated like a piece of crap afterward, getting turned down for a job with the state police. Reyes the internal affairs officer found the officers actions justified and proper, and consistent with standard protocols for crash-scene response and safety. Roca said in his report that the driver attempted to back into a state trooper, at which point he fired his gun three times at the driver. Nine of those 12 are in specialized assignments other than patrol operations. Reyes ultimately exonerated Romero. Its not clear and it doesnt exist. Hed be gone by then.. The handwritten log, which tracks civilian and internal complaints against officers and their conclusions, features two entries for Roca. Whether its now or later, well see.. He said that Febo and others have stepped in to prevent him from getting jobs with other police departments. That second entry likely relates to an incident in 2017 when Roca fired his gun at a Leeds resident, Dan Guyette, who led officers on a high-speed chase through Holyoke before crashing into parked cars. I wasnt looking for them to be on my side, but youd think if somebody was making allegations about their city they may have questions themselves.. As for Roca, he said he doesnt regret posting the video or making the allegations. In an interview last week, Garcia said he planned to follow through with an assessment of the police department, later adding: This is not an investigation, its an assessment.. More Local News to Love Start today for 50% off Expires 3/6/23. '"; Similarrecords from the Northampton Police Department, for example, show that of the 90 times an officer faced a civilian complaint from 2010 and 2020, department superiors only disciplined officers nine times. In an interview, POST Commission Executive Director Enrique Zuniga said the agencys investigations will eventually come before the full commission, which can go so far as to decertify officers found to have violated state standards a career-ending type of decision, Zuniga said. Speaking to the Gazette, he alleged he has worked on grant-funded shifts during which supervisors who were supposed to be working were nowhere to be found the entire shift.. The mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, has broken his silence about an NEPM investigation that revealed the city's police department almost never disciplines officers whom civilians accuse of wrongdoing. //var LBtag_id = document.getElementById('buylinkLBRocaHolyokeFiring-hg-111721,ph1'); Murphy said that neither the district attorneys office nor the attorney generals office ever spoke to him about any investigation of Rocas allegations. All rights reserved (About Us). Click here to sign up for our weekly coronavirus newsletter. That part of the commissions work has yet to materialize either. Here is the list of officers: Devon Bones, Holyoke Police Department. Roca responded saying he already appealed the decision to the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission. Cannabis company Trulieve will pay $14,502 after reaching a settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over the death of an employee who worked at Trulieve's Holyoke cultivation site. I stand behind the video and what I said in it.. Position Type:Staff Full-time. If youre in the police department, you have to obey orders.. An officer ripped his work ID off his neck, he alleged, throwing it to the ground and saying, F--- your program.. Ill probably lose my job, but Im good. SCREENSHOT/YOUTUBE Thats what police was for. Its a problem within our commonwealth and it will continue to be a problem until we have an administrative agency that has teeth, that has enforcement power, that can punish municipalities and agencies when they withhold records improperly, Pyle said. The man alleged that Leahy tackled him to the ground at 2 a.m. after he had left a club, put a gun to his head and told him to shut up when he asked what was going on. The attorney generals office declined to comment on Tuesday. At the time, Roca told the commission that he had told Monsalve he was OK with the driver being placed in protective custody instead of being arrested because he did not view it as his decision.. GAZETTE FILE PHOTO A 2020 city report of the top 100 salaries in the city shows that, including school staff, 18 out of the top 20 highest paid city employees that year were police officers. To tackle these questions,"I'm a Cop"directly examines the words of READ THE REST, The Boston Globe recently printed an op-ed by former Ithaca, NY mayor Svante Myrick, who talks about his own city's approach to police reform. I did exactly what I was trained and paid to do but people on my watch had a problem with that because they like to sleep in their cruisers overnight; they dont want to work.. Our forum rules are detailed in the Community Guidelines. //var LBtag_id = document.getElementById('buylinkLBRocaHolyokeFiring-hg-111721,ph2'); var sellablestring3 = "STAFF FILE PHOTO"; Pyle represented the WorcesterTelegram & Gazettein the newspapers 2018 lawsuit against the city of Worcester over its police departments illegal withholding of misconduct records. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. sites. In his internal report on the incident, HPDs internal affairs officer, Manuel Reyes, said police pulled over Concepcion for a traffic violation. OSHA, cannabis company reach $14k settlement in Holyoke worker's death . Not one time did they respond to a call, not one time were they on the radio, he said. In March, Rafael Roca, who had been a Holyoke police officer since 2015, posted the video to YouTube, where it has since been viewed more than 56,000 times. It's that point in the year READ THE REST, We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Beyond changing the public records law, the 2020 police reform bill also created a new state agency, thePeace Officer Standards and Training Commission, which now tracks police departments internal investigations and can conduct its own preliminary inquiries into alleged misconduct. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Advocates call for more police oversight after WBUR investigation, Mass. He noted that he was terminated in the final days of Murphys tenure as acting mayor. Ill probably lose my job, but Im good. In this still from a video Roca posted to YouTube on March 7, 2021, Roca alleges there is corruption and racism in the Holyoke Police Department. Roca claimed that Manny Febo, the first Latinx police chief in Holyoke, has targeted him and other employees by refusing them positions and recognition for their work. Hed be gone by then.. Holyoke Officer Rafael Roca, a former Marine hired in 2016, said in the 43-minute video posted on YouTube that Chief Manny Febo is corrupt and plays favorites, and he argued that members of minority groups are passed over for plum assignments and that discipline is handed out selectively. That is roughly 53 percent of non-minority officers with eight years or more who are assigned to specialized assignments., Additional he said there were 38 officers total with six years or less of full-time experience, Of those 38, 17 are minority officers. He went on to say that he had tried to sue, tried speaking with the supervisors, Ive tried my union, Ive tried it all. Roca said he hoped that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Attorney General, along with the FBI, would open an investigation into the department. Whos policing the police? he asked. And cities where complaints of police misconduct are rarely ruled in favor of civilians could benefit from creating an oversight structure to independently investigate these complaints. ", He calls outgoing Police Chief Manny Febo "corrupt," contending minorities are routinely passed over for upper-tier assignments and disciplined at higher rates. Holyoke Officer Rafael Roca, a former Marine hired in 2016, said in the 43-minute video posted on YouTube that Chief Manny Febo is "corrupt" and plays favorites, and he argued that members of. In August, the city of Holyoke hired a firm to audit its police department, including its internal affairs processes. Holyoke Officer Rafael Roca, a former Marine hired in 2016, said in the 43-minute video posted on YouTube that Chief Manny Febo is "corrupt" and plays favorites, and he argued that members of minority groups are passed over for plum assignments and that discipline is handed out selectively. var photocredit = "'SCREENSHOT/YOUTUBE' 'Holyoke police officer Rafael Roca. Pratt said that Roca can still present his case to the Civil Service Commission. Holyoke Police Department's 24 hour anonymous "TEXT-A-TIP" Dial CRIMES (533-TIPS or 533-8477). We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. The comments are concerning, erroneous, harmful, but most importantly divisive, Capt. All rights reserved, FIRST ALERT: Storm Hitting Greater Boston Live Radar, Updates. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Reminders Publishing. var sellablestring = "GAZETTE STAFF"; 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. In an interview with NEPM, Maldonado Velez said his critique of the police department is not about individual officers but rather the system of policing. The benefits of learning to play READ THE REST. His video, posted Sunday, has been viewed 27,000 times. ", Police departments in America have a lot of unnecessary military hardware, thanks to sweetheart deals between legislators and arms dealers that allow for layers of creative financial accounting as long READ THE REST, Here's how creator Johnny Damm explains the project: Can policing be reformed?
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