PITTSBURGH (AP) – A recommendation to reprimand a White Pittsburgh police officer for arresting a Black teacher who commented about the officer’s driving has been deemed too harsh by the city’s police union and not harsh enough by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the incident.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazettesays the union president, Sgt. Michael LaPorte, believes the recommended reprimand should be appealed. LaPorte says Officer Jonathan Gromek did nothing wrong when he arrested Dennis Henderson as a crowd gathered outside a community meeting June 26. Henderson spent 12 hours in jail on charges that were later dropped.
But Witold Walczak, the ACLU’s legal director in Pennsylvania, says “it’s hard to imagine … a stronger case of misconduct.”
The city’s Office of Municipal Investigations recommended the reprimand