The firing of Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Carl Bell by
Mayor Ernie Davis continues to be a hot-button issue in the city nearly a month
after Bell was let go.
Damon Jones,
a Mount Vernon resident and the head of the Westchester chapter of Blacks in
Law Enforcement, criticized Bell's termination as he addressed the City Council
during its meeting Wednesday.
"How are we going to fire a commissioner who is holding
officers to accountability?" he asked. "There are some police
officers that are out of control."
He said the victims of police brutality are African-American.
"The only people they're abusing are people who look like
us," he said.
Davis, who has sole responsibility over the police commissioner,
has refused to comment on why Bell was fired -- an issue that Samuel Rivers
questioned.
"An answer from the mayor that he doesn't discuss personnel
matters is not good enough," Rivers said.
None of the council's five members addressed Bell's firing.
Council member Roberta Apuzzo, the head of the City Council's Public Safety
Committee, said she was "looking forward to having a dialogue" with
Jones.
"I've been around here since 1986, and we've had 12 police
commissioners. Something's wrong with that equation," City Council
President Yuhanna Edwards said.
Jones said he plans to write letters to the Department of
Justice's civil rights division about police abuse of Mount Vernon residents.
In a Monday letter to Mount Vernon city Attorney Nichelle Johnson,
Jones said the organization would continue to question the motive behind Bell's
firing.
"This has completely jeopardized the process of
accountability and transparency in the Mount Vernon Police Department,"
Jones said.
Several members of the police force are under investigation by
the FBI
and U.S. attorney's office for possible ties to gang members, Newsday reported
Feb. 22. Sources familiar with the investigation said the probe was in its
preliminary stages and was not focused solely on officers from any one race or
any particular hometown.
FEDERAL PROBES
Davis, who is the target of a separate federal probe into his
finances, has said he knows nothing of the Police Department probe. Sources
have said that Davis and Bell have been kept in the dark about the police
investigation.
Bell, who is taking time off before deciding his next career
move, told Newsday he appreciated the support he has received from Mount Vernon
police officers and city residents since he was fired.
"It's nice to know there are people who appreciate the job
I did," Bell said. "But I'm looking forward, not looking back."
Davis fired Bell on Feb. 19, ending Bell's 2 1/2-year tenure as
commissioner. The firing came after a year in which shootings and homicides
spiked in Mount Vernon and relations between Davis and Bell -- who was
appointed in August 2010 by Davis' predecessor, Clinton Young -- deteriorated.
The mayor on Feb. 28 appointed Richard Burke as deputy
police commissioner. Burke
-- a former Mount Vernon police lieutenant who retired in 1994 after 21 years
with the force -- will run the 205-member Police Department until a
commissioner is named.
Sources said that Davis' first choice for the commissioner's job
is former Mount Vernon Police Officer Terrance Raynor, who heads the 35
investigators of the Westchester County district attorney's office.
Raynor attended Burke's swearing-in March
1 and said afterward he had not applied for the job. He didn't give a direct
answer when asked whether he was interested in the post.
Last
year, there were 10 homicides and more than 20 shootings in Mount Vernon. Only
two arrests have been made in the homicide cases. The 10 killings surpassed the
combined total of the previous two years.
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