Chief: Officer's Proud Boys membership didn't break policy
He has been an East Hampton police officer since 1999 and never had any complaints of racial bias made against him, according to Woessner. The chief said department records show Wilcox, who patrols a town with an overwhelmingly white population, has stopped only white people between January 2018 and September 2019.
"There is no question that he is not a white supremacist," Woessner said Tuesday.
Asked what he knows about the Proud Boys, the chief said, "Only what I searched on the internet."
East Hampton has roughly 13,000 residents and is about 20 miles southeast of Hartford. On its website, the town's police department says it currently has 11 officers and four sergeants.
An initial letter from Clarke to Woessner, dated July 24, noted that a federal jury in 2008 awarded more than $27,000 in damages to a man who accused Wilcox and other East Hampton officers of using excessive force during an arrest.
The plaintiff, Alan P. Clark, claimed Wilcox repeatedly struck him in the head with a metal flashlight while trying to subdue him. Clark said he needed about 14 staples to close his head wounds.
Jurors concluded that Wilcox violated Clark's constitutional right to be free from excessive force and decided the officer was liable for just over $11,000 in damages to compensate Clark for his injuries. An attorney who represented Clark said Tuesday that the parties reached a confidential settlement less than two months after the trial.
"Officer Wilcox's association with white supremacists on public platforms, as well as his history of violence, risks interfering with your department's operations by disrupting the working relationships between the East Hampton Police Department and the community it serves," Clarke wrote in her July 24 letter to the chief.
A Connecticut police officer's membership in the Proud Boys, a far-right group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies, didn't violate department policies, the town's police chief has concluded in response to a civil rights group's concerns. The East Hampton officer, Kevin P...
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