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Officer Resigns Amid Probe Of His Response To Puerto Rico T-Shirt Harassment
A Chicago woman was harassed for wearing a Puerto Rico flag T-shirt by a man — and the cop, who appeared to not help in the viral video, caught flak on social media.
The officer seen in the viral video of the Puerto Rico flag T-shirt incident has reportedly resigned from his position.
Officer Patrick Connor was placed under investigation within 10 days of the June 14 event that took place in Caldwell Woods Forest Preserve in Chicago, according to The Chicago Tribune. He resigned on Wednesday, nearly a month after the incident.
The incident was live-streamed on Facebook by the victim, Mia Irizarry, who was verbally attacked for wearing a Puerto-Rican flag T-shirt.
The man berating her, who has since been identified as Timothy Trybus by The Chicago Tribune, questioned her citizenship status, asked her if she was educated, and told her she should not be wearing a Puerto Rican flag T-shirt in this country.
From the video, it appears he is unaware that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans have American citizenship.
“Are you a U.S. citizen?” he asks her. “Then you should not be wearing that.”
“Why is she wearing that sh-t?” he shouts in the video.
The officer present at the scene, despite repeated requests from Irizarry, walks away from the pleading woman.
Irizarry, who says she had a permit for a birthday party, sounds frustrated with the police’s lack of action.
“The craziest thing is, all these cops here and I still don’t feel safe,” she says later in the video.
She is also seen filing a complaint at the end of the nearly 37-minute long video.
Forest Preserves of Cook County, which is in charge of Caldwell Woods Forest Preserve, said in a series of tweets on Tuesday, “After the incident, we immediately launched an investigation pursuant to our personnel policies into the response of our officer.”
Connor was assigned to desk duty during the early stages of the investigation, according to NBC. His resignation was announced late Wednesday, according to another tweet from the organization.
“He resigned late today. But that isn’t where our work ends,” the tweet read.
Connor “tarnished” the image of the whole department with his inaction, County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr. said at a press conference.
General Superintendent Arnold Randall said in a statement shared on the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s Facebook that Connor's personnel file will indicate that he “did not resign in good standing,” and note that he left the district with “discipline pending”.
The statement also noted that “certain aspects” of the investigation are continuing.
On Thursday, Trybus was charged with a felony hate crime for his verbal attack against Irizarry.
[Photo: Screenshot from video by Mia Irizarry]
