Sergeant Booted for Telling Cops to Hide License Plates During NYC Chauvin Protests

Cops responding to public celebrations around New York City after the conviction of disgraced Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin reversed their license plates and spray-painted them black as part of an effort to make at least four official vehicles “mean looking” and not “readily identifiable.”

That’s according to a Dec. 13 arbitrator’s decision obtained by The Daily Beast, which upheld the Port Authority Police Department’s decision to fire Sgt. John Passarotti, a 22-year veteran assigned to the PAPD’s elite Counterterrorism Unit (CTU) at JFK International Airport. Passarotti, who admitted giving the order to obscure the plates, supervised a team of six officers who expressed concern about the scheme. But, as one of them told investigators, “I figured it was an order from the sergeant, so I wouldn’t, I didn’t question it.”

Passarotti, who is also a member of the New York State Guard, as well as the treasurer of the Port Authority Sergeants Benevolent Association, “intended to leave the plates obscured until the ‘protest activity decreased,’” the decision says.

Read more at The Daily Beast.