I talked with two police chiefs in Minnesota about what happened when Tyre Nichols was stopped by Memphis police officers and fatally beaten last month. 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. ", He calls outgoing Police Chief Manny Febo "corrupt," contending minorities are routinely passed over for upper-tier assignments and disciplined at higher rates. Whether its now or later, well see.. He was deployed to Bosnia from 2003-2004 where he worked with anti-corruption and security forces. The incident was fully investigated by previous chief, discipline meted out, and every step was reported publicly at that time, he wrote. Advocates call for more police oversight after WBUR investigation, Mass. Pictured above: thumbnail of the Youtube video posted by Holyoke police officer Rafael Roca. Ernest Fontaine, Fitchburg State . 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. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Taken from that vehicle was two ballistic vests with two magazines in the pouches, along with some K9 gear, and a first aid bag. 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. A vehicle was stolen in Granby, Mass., that vehicle was driven by suspects who drove around and broke into parked vehicles in driveways in South Hadley. Lorna McMurrey, 27, was filling . 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. The city attorney suggested that under the circumstances the city was getting off easy. When asked about allegations that the HPD made civilians wait in the police department to file a complaint, he described that as an old-school, tried-and-true tactic of the agencies to keep their complaint level down.. Roca was immediately placed on administrative leave as the department conducted an internal investigation. Holyoke Police Department | Holyoke MA As of March 9, Roca has been suspended from the department due to his violation of a rule prohibiting officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. Roca said he expected to face discipline after posting the video but was invested in calling attention to what he saw as problems within the department. Another was accused of sexual assault while he was off duty. He said when he spoke out against the alleged injustice, racism and favoritism and nepotism that he had witnessed, he was punished and shunned. Roca said his attempts to transfer to a different police department were allegedly sabotaged by the chief, and cited a single informal complaint made against him that he said ended with no investigation and him working in an administrative role for more than a month. I stand behind the video and what I said in it. I stand behind the video and what I said in it.. var photocredit = photocredit.toUpperCase(); 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. Roca, a five-year veteran of the police force who served in the U.S. Marines before that, said he refused to remove the video upon Febos orders on Sunday. '"; var currentheadline = document.getElementById("headline").innerText; Pyle represented the WorcesterTelegram & Gazettein the newspapers 2018 lawsuit against the city of Worcester over its police departments illegal withholding of misconduct records. When Romero put his hand on the boys shoulder and told him to go back to his classroom, Reyes said the boy smacked the officer's hand and swore at him. In August, the city of Holyoke hired a firm to audit its police department, including its internal affairs processes. Coughlin has been living large on his State Police pension of $131,961 a year. For those reasons, Reyes cleared the officers of violating department policies. var photocredit = photocredit.toUpperCase(); Yeah, they didnt waste any time. 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.. When told of NEPMs findings that only three officers had civilian complaints sustained against them over a decade, Valentin said shes not surprised. var photocredit = "'GAZETTE FILE PHOTO' 'Holyoke police officer parks in the train station on Main Street on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. They took my gun and my badge and kicked me out of the email system, Roca said during an interview at the time. "I'm here to make this video to expose the corruption, and the lies, and the injustice that is taking place within the police department in Holyoke, Massachusetts," he says at the start of the video. 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. In 2017, for example, a civilian accused Holyoke police officer Patrick Leahy of putting him through hell for almost a year.. Prosecutors pressed charges against him until the day he showed up for his trial, when he said they informed him they were dropping the case. var tag_id = document.getElementById('buylinkHolyokePD-hg031021,ph1'); Because when you speak up and you expose corruption, he said in the video, thats what they do.. If that doesn't work, move to step 2: literally shoot the messenger Roca said he also plans to file a lawsuit over his treatment. HOLYOKE, Mass. Roca said that he has only received one formal and one informal complaint during his five years on the force a claim that appears to be corroborated by an internal affairs log the Gazette has obtained through a public records request. of Roca said a police captain called him about a day after he posted the video. I stand behind the video and what I said in it.. He also called for the FBI or the state attorney generals office to investigate the department. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. NEPM has obtained a decades worth of civilian complaints against HPD officers and the departments own internal investigations of them. It took the HPD more than a year and a half to turn over its 69 internal investigations, all of which the department redacted to remove information about the person alleging misconduct. In 2014, the president of the patrol-officer union wrote a scathing letter to the City Council denouncing Councilors Rebecca Lisi and Jossie Valentin for marching in a Black Lives Matter protest where he said some protesters used anti-police rhetoric., Since that moment, it was very evident to me that some members of the Holyoke Police Department were not happy with me and with Rebecca, Valentin told NEPM in an interview from Puerto Rico, where she now lives. He said the incident took place last year and involved the department responding to a call at the boat ramp where a citizen had stated that an officer had purposely rammed his boat. Febo went on to say there were conflicting accounts regarding the incident and very minor contact. He said while no formal complaint was filed, a report was filed and the incident was not covered up. Additionally, he said, the officer was spoken to about rudeness when dealing with the public. Last fall, five of the remaining six members of the board quit after they wereblocked from reviewing the police department's internal reporton the police killing of city resident Miguel Estrella. On March 9, spokesperson for the Holyoke Police Department Matthew Moriarty confirmed that Roca was on paid leave while an internal investigation was completed regarding the matter. This video posted online by Former Holyoke Police Officer Rafael Roca may well have been lost to history and future litigants contending with the police misconduct in Western MA if it had not been rescued by the Internet Archive (which is currently fighting off a vexatious lawsuit filed by a greedy publishing monopolist lobbying group which wants to burn down the Internet's proverbial 'Library . 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. That is roughly 75 percent of minority officers with eight years or more in specialized assignments, he said. var sellablestring2 = "STAFF PHOTO"; In the video, Roca also alleged that department leadership has covered up the facts surrounding several instances when weapons have gone missing from the department. Roca also claimed in his video that recently, a police officer had his car stolen with guns and equipment inside. He alleged that the car was found in Hartford, but the guns and equipment were missing. HOLYOKE, Mass. We dont have that today.. Three of those officers claimed more than 800 overtime hours that year, and another claimed more than 1,200 hours. They took my gun and my badge and kicked me out of the email system, Roca told Masslive.com on Monday. Febo, who plans to retire in July, said he has nothing to hide. 234 were here. 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. Service. Roca said he had performed consistently in his role as a police officer and engaged in crime fighting when others were allegedly sleeping in their police cruisers and ignoring crime. He went on to say there had been officers he knew of that were allegedly involved in drunk driving incidents, who had assaulted people with their boats who have been labeled as racist and officers who had stolen money. He went on to say there were police officers who allegedly have made an excess of $260,000 a year and no one had questioned the situation. Howie Carr: What's so urgent in Holbrook, Mr. Speaker? OSHA, cannabis company reach $14k settlement in Holyoke worker's death . The rollout hasnot been smooth, with commissioners sparring overinternal rulesandavailable resources. Former Brockton RMV manager, driving school owner charged by U.S. Attorney with giving passing test scores to people who failed, Complete Boston payroll for 2022: Your Tax Dollars at Work, Boston drug trafficker set to do 11 years in prison, give up Louis Vuitton bags, feds say, Union drive: Uber, Lyft drivers rally for right to unionize, Boston sees first open race for Suffolk Superior civil court clerk magistrate in nearly 50 years, High school tournaments: Winchester stuns No. Graduated from 36th Massachusetts Police Officer . 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. He said he was in the hospital due to stress from the situation. All rights reserved (About Us). And he said that when he would leave the station during those three weeks, police would pull his car over. He says he was consistently singled out for vocalizing his opposition to the police chief, made to repeat pieces of training and attacked via email for not supporting one supervisors protest against police reform. Play all audios: Loading. He also said that academics have struggled to answer the question of whether a complaint against an officer represents a problem officer, a productive officer or some combination of the two. It should be known as Corrupt City," he said in the video. Daily Hampshire Gazette Contests & Promotions, Daily Hampshire Gazette Evening Top Reads, Daily Hampshire Gazette Weekly Top Stories, Daily Hampshire Gazette Dining & Entertainment, Support the var currentLocation = window.location; Within the department, he said he had been shamed. Growing up Puerto Rican in the Flats neighborhood of Holyoke one of the citys majority-Hispanic lower wards Maldonado Velez said he heard plenty of stories from those whom that system harmed. Get the latest news on COVID-19 delivered to you. 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. license. HOLYOKE, Mass. 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. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Isaac Holyoke, director of communications at CleanSpark, said the shift made it easier for employees to communicate with each other and that employees value "autonomy and flexibility." "People are used to being at home when they can go on business when they need to, and we have kept that culture here in the office," Holyoke said. var sellablestring4 = "GAZETTE FILE PHOTO"; Murphy didnt have to answer to anybody. 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. Project Advances, What Happened to the Money?' In it, he alleged that superior officers falsify overtime pay, have protected each other from punishment for misconduct and have fostered a culture of favoritism and racism when it comes to promotion. He was deployed in 2009-2010 to Iraq where he assisted military police . The driver, who officers alleged smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech, turned out to be a lieutenant with the Holyoke Fire Department. The outstanding efforts of the men and women of the police department have resulted in a reduction in crime over the last two years. 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. 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. 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. March 15, Compare the best Police Misconduct lawyers near Holyoke, MA today. Roca said he was suspended for violating the departments social media policy, which bars officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. He also made the case that his statements were on matters of public concern; a Holyoke Police Department rule bars criticism of the department except on matters of public concern.. Despite the high Puerto Rican population in Holyoke, Roca said there are not enough police officers from the community. That decision was made after a Holyoke police officer publicly alleged corruption within the HPD and a Daily Hampshire Gazette investigation found what some characterized as "excessive. When. And often, legal protections and collective bargaining agreements with police unions prevent those boards from interviewing officers, he added. Roca said that the department is rife with racism. He was suspended for violating the departments social media policy, which prohibits officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. HOLYOKE, Mass. On March 7, Holyoke police officer Rafael Roca posted a video on YouTube alleging racism and corruption by the Holyoke Police Department. He said NEPMs reporting points to a they-against-us type of mentality and not really a serve-and-protect type mentality within the police department, and that an external, non-biased party should be investigating allegations of misconduct. Febo, who plans to retire in July, said he has nothing to hide. Roca said he has received support from former co-workers who are scared to speak out and from many others in the city. Febo also issued a statement on the matter, and said while he would not be commenting on the internal personnel matter that is ongoing, he did take the opportunity to address some of the allegations and give facts., Febo said with regard to the allegation that the department covered up stolen and/or lost rifles, the incident in question took place 10 years ago and was fully investigated by [the] previous chief, discipline meted out, and every step was reported publicly at that time., Additionally Febo referenced the claim regarding a detective that had his vehicle and weapon stolen, which was covered up. A former military police officer, Terrill has for many years researched civilian complaints against police officers in cities across the country, including a2016 study that looked at departmentsin eight different cities.
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