BLACK POLICE GROUP SAYS RACE A FACTOR IN OFF DUTY DETECTIVE RIDLEYS SHOOTING

Westchester Chapter National Black Police Association

President Srirling Dixson


MOUNT VERNON - Race was a contributing factor in the shooting death of a black police officer by four fellow cops, and more training, better community relations and more hiring diversity are needed to prevent similar incidents, the leaders of an organization of black police officers said.

Damon K. Jones, executive director of the Westchester County chapter of the National Black Police Association, said such measures are needed to prevent future incidents like the shooting death of Mount Vernon Police Officer Christopher Ridley.

Ridley was off-duty and trying to break up an altercation on Jan. 25 when four Westchester County police officers opened fire.

"The politicians, the lawmakers, the policymakers in Westchester should sit down and develop comprehensive training and programs within law enforcement," Jones said. "It cannot be politics as usual with black law enforcement in Westchester, especially with what happened to our brother Christopher Ridley."

Jones said he believed that if it had been a white cop instead of Ridley, the other officers would have shown more restraint.

Westchester NBPA President Sterling Dixson criticized the leak of the identity of Detective Robert Martin, the only black officer of the four involved in Ridley's shooting.

Dixson questioned whether that was done to quell assertions that the shooting was racially motivated. The identities of the three others - Officers Frank Oliveri, Jose Calero and Christian Gutierrez - weren't confirmed until the following day, Dixson said.

"The incident happened approximately 5 p.m., and by 11 p.m. everyone knew Martin's name as the lone black cop that shot Ridley," said Dixson. "Who leaked this brother's name?"

Jones said he would prefer a federal investigation into the shooting to the one being conducted by the White Plains Police Department.

"There's an old saying: Police can't police themselves," he said.

Jones called for sensitivity training to counter institutional prejudices within law enforcement with regard to black people. He said such training was more about changing attitudes than police tactics.

With regard to hiring, he cited a Justice Department report that showed the number of black officers falls far short of the black population in several local communities. In Yonkers, for example, blacks make up 18 percent of the population but only 5 percent of the police force. In Mount Vernon, 62 percent of residents are black but only 24 percent of police officers are black.

Meanwhile, there is barely a handful of black officers between the two cities above the rank of sergeant, he said.

New Rochelle Police Detective Timothy McKnight said good community policing was important and varied from place to place.

"You can't police a community you don't know," McKnight said. "The message today is this is a start."
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PLEASE NOTE:

There was a misquotation in this article. Damon K. Jones The Executive Director Stated about Mt. Vernon and Yonkers. “There are NO African Americans above the rank of a Sergeant. Mt. Vernon has 2; Yonkers has 1, nothing above.”