An NYPD sergeant was stripped of her gun and her badge after being brought up on departmental charges for her role in Eric Garner's death.
The Daily News reports that 43-year-old Sergeant Kizzy Adonis was put on modified duty today, and that internal charges against another sergeant involved in the incident are pending. An NYPD source told the Post why: “In the video that people see of the takedown, the sergeant is standing in the background doing nothing. Her role as a sergeant is to take charge of the situation and supervise. She was supposed to take charge.”
A woman wearing a sergeant's insignia on the sleeve of her uniform (three blue arrows) that appears to be Sergeant Adonis can be seen around the 2:00 mark in the video of Garner's arrest.
Sources told both tabloids that the disciplinary charges against Adonis came today because she was recently promoted to Sergeant at the time of Garner's death, and was thus still on probation. That means the department has to bring disciplinary action within 18 months of the incident.
The NYPD's internal charges against Adonis are pending a federal probe into Garner's death, which is still ongoing.
The head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, called it a "bullshit political charge," and said that Adonis was only on the scene because she heard it over the radio. “She didn’t have to do it. That’s the irony of it.”
Mullins told the Post, “The only one who should be charged with failure to supervise is Commissioner Bratton. He was in charge of the NYPD during the Garner incident and ultimately bears the responsibility of failed policies that lead to the enforcement of an act that sadly caused the death of Eric Garner. Bratton’s actions are nothing more than political pandering and a failure in leadership and character."
It's worth recalling what Eugene O'Donnell, a former NYPD officer and professor at John Jay College, told us after the police unions rebelled against the NYPD and Mayor de Blasio last year.
O'Donnell said that while the PBA is being demonized, the "real issue" is lack of accountability among politicians, who make the laws that the police enforce.
"'I'm an Assemblyman, I'm a Senator, I'm an architect of this system, I'm an owner-operator, the cops are our partners.' I haven't heard anybody say that," O'Donnell said.
"People will not explain what the police do, the context in which they operate, the power they have, the endorsement they have from the highest level of people. The root of this, is that loose cigarette enforcement is a lunatic mission, that no cop ever joined the NYPD to be part of."
Four of the medical technicians who seemingly stood by and watched Garner die were suspended.
Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who killed Garner with a chokehold, was not indicted by a Staten Island grand jury. Pantaleo remains on modified duty.
