LAW ENFORCEMENT
Stonewall Demo Followed by Aggressive NYPD Action
Activists’ weekly march confronted by massive police push as prez race count went on
BY MATT TRACY
With Vice President
Joe Biden on the
cusp of victory in
the 2020 presidential
election, a weekly demonstration
near the Stonewall Inn and a
subsequent march was met with
aggressive confrontation by the
NYPD on November 5 when offi -
cers arrested LGBTQ activists and
physically shoved Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams.
Activists who planned the “We
Choose Freedom” demonstration
said they have held weekly actions
for fi ve months, but this week’s
event coincided with a large increase
in police presence at the
culmination of the 2020 presidential
election.
Joel Rivera and Qween Jean,
a pair of out LGBTQ activists
who have delivered impassioned
speeches at protests throughout
recent months, spearheaded the
Qween Jean at the November 5 demonstration outside the Stonewall Inn.
event and made speeches before
the march kicked off. Rivera underscored
the important role Black
transgender women have played in
leading the way during the Black
Lives Matter movement this year
and urged those in the crowd to
show solidarity with the community
INSTAGRAM/ @THESTONEWALLPROTESTS
in the face of intimidation from
the police.
“We have a lot of police presence
here, the most I’ve ever seen in the
past 21 weeks,” Rivera said. “But
we are going to march. If they do
or when they do attack us, we will
link arms. We will not run away.”
Several reporters were on the
scene, where a large crowd gathered
for the demonstration. According
to the New York Daily
News, activists proceeded to march
from the Stonewall Inn, down West
Fourth Street and past Washington
Square Park. But shortly before
8 p.m., the scene grew chaotic and
three individuals were, according
to the Daily News, apprehended
and arrested by police in just some
of the busts that were made during
the evening.
Reporter Christopher Robbins of
Gothamist posted videos on Twitter
capturing footage of the public
advocate on the scene as Williams
urged the police to remain calm.
“NYPD was trying to clear the
street to make an arrest. Aggressively,”
Williams wrote on Twitter,
where videos also showed Rivera
getting arrested by police. “Offi cers
then appeared to begin setting up
➤ NYPD AGGRESSION, continued on p.7
Torres Charges NYPD Anti-Bias Offi cer Bigoted Online
Police veteran accused of writing racist, homophobic, sexist posts in cop “rant” forum
BY MATT TRACY
A leader of the NYPD’s Offi
ce of Equal Employment
Opportunity hid
behind an online persona
as he spewed racist, homophobic,
xenophobic, sexist, and other
intolerant comments on a message
board frequented by city cops, according
to an investigation carried
out by the City Council’s Oversight
and Investigations Committee.
Despite the explosive allegations
— which were fi rst reported by The
New York Times and subsequently
detailed in a City Council report
— he remains employed by the police
department, albeit on modifi ed
duty while NYPD investigates.
Deputy inspector James Francis
Kobel, who was serving as commanding
offi cer of the NYPD’s Offi
ce of Equal Employment Opportunity
(EEO) within the department’s
Offi ce of Equity and Inclusion, allegedly
used the pseudonym “Clouseau”
to post more than 500 times
on the board, known as “Law Enforcement
Rant,” between July of
last year and September of this
year.
Among the many examples, he
allegedly described Bronx District
Attorney Darcel Clark as a “gaptooth
wildebeest” and Assembly
Speaker Carl Heastie, also of the
Bronx, as a “savage.” Kobel also
allegedly said two women on the
police force were “gutter sl*ts” and
“f**king animals” and “savages.”
According to the report, Kobel
labeled the late Eric Garner —
who died in 2014 after NYPD offi - NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ JEFF REED
Out gay City Councilmember Ritchie Torres chairs the Oversight and Investigations Committee, which
spearheaded an investigation into deputy inspector James Francis Kobel. ➤ BIGOTED RANTS, continued on p.27
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