NYPD Refuses To Fire Racist Cop Convicted Of Breaking Into Black Woman’s Home
Michael J. Reynolds, the racist NYPD cop who barged into a Black woman’s home in Tennessee earlier this month is still employed by the police department. Reynolds called Conese Halliburton and her four sons the N-word in a drunken rage but was only sent to jail for a few weeks and placed on three years probation.
NewsOne previously reported that Reynolds was renting an Airbnb for a friend’s bachelor party in September when he began “kicking in the front door of [Halliburton’s next door] 12 South-area home and charging in in the middle of the night. Video surveillance taken from a neighbor’s RING camera showed Reynolds screaming and threatening the family and using racial slurs.”
Shortly after Reynolds’ forced entry, Halliburton said that her dogs tried to bite the NYPD officer, but to no avail, “he kept coming down the hall,” she said. “Nothing was holding him back. He was like, ‘This is my mother f—ing house.’”
There is surveillance footage of Reynolds threatening the family with racism and physical violence.
“Try to shoot me, and I’ll break every f—ing bone in your f—ing neck,” said Reynolds. He then called them “fucking niggers.”
He blamed his actions on alcohol.
Halliburton called 911 to report the incident. However, Reynolds was arrested days later.
NewsOne reached out to the NYPD for an update on the status of the officer, who was sentenced to just two weeks in jail and three years probation. An unidentified employee said that Reynolds’ current status with the NYPD is “modified.” When asked to explain what “modified” meant, the woman replied, “Modified is what it means, modified.”
So, essentially, a “partial or minor change” was made, per Oxford dictionary.
A petition has since been launched to push for the firing of the NYPD officer. The Change.org petition is calling out the NYPD for continuing to employ Reynolds. “There is no reasonable argument for leaving a violent, racist, convicted criminal on the police force, armed with a gun in New York City,” the petition says. As of Thursday, it received nearly 6,000 signatures.
Reynolds’ recent racist and heinous actions begets questions and concerns. How are his Black colleagues receiving him? How do they feel about the situation in general? Especially considering a recent report from The Hill which claimed that several NYPD officers allege that they were given orders to arrest people based on race between 2011 and 2015.
In the report, officers also admitted in sworn statements that they were part of a discrimination lawsuit, in which they were instructed by a commander to target Black and Latino people, according to The New York Times.
“You should write more black and Hispanic people,” an officer named Aaron Diaz recalled being told in 2012.
A spokesperson from the NYC Law Department told The Hill that the accusations are “meritless.” “These claims of discrimination have not been substantiated. The NYPD investigated the allegations in Officer Maximilien’s declaration and found them to be meritless. We’ll continue to defend against these baseless accusations,” the spokesperson said.
As of Dec. 20, Reynolds was still employed by the NYPD, which should raise questions.
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