Group Calls For NCPD Commissioner Patrick Ryder To Resign

HEMPSTEAD, NY — A coalition of civil rights groups banded together on Thursday to call for Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder to resign, claiming that he has made multiple racially insensitive remarks that make him unfit to serve.

The groups all belong to Long Island Advocates for Police Accountability, a group that wants to change local policing to make it more just. Led by Hempstead civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington, the group called for Ryder's resignation, citing "three strikes" the police commissioner had made.

"This is a commissioner who has shown over and over again that he cannot appropriately address the needs of diversity and race in the County of Nassau as the leader of the Nassau County Police Department," Brewington said at a press conference.

The first strike, Brewington said, was data related to arrests in the county. According to Brewington, data his group received from the police showed that for every white person arrested in Nassau 5.3 Black and 2.3 Latino people were arrested, despite making up a much smaller percentage of the population.

When asked about the numbers, Brewington said that Ryder refused to say if there were racial disparities in the arresting procedures of the NCPD.

The second strike came on the floor of the Nassau County Legislature. Brewington singled out a time when Ryder was testifying before the Legislature and was being questioned by Legislator Carrie Solages, who is Black. Solages asked Ryder about the arrest numbers, and Ryder said there was no problem.

The third strike the group says Ryder committed was comments he made in a Newsday story about the disparity in hiring of police. According to Newsday's investigation, out of 2,500 Black applicants in Nassau County's 2012 police exam, only 36 were hired in the six years after.

Ryder was questioned about the hiring as part of the story. While explaining the county's recruitment practices, he said that Black and Latino children come from "broken homes" and are "at a disadvantage starting off." He later apologized for the comments.

But civil rights organizations say that apologies are not enough.

"We're calling on you now to resign because you have proven you cannot address the issues of race when it comes to policing in Nassau County," Brewington said. "Not by our words, but by your actions and your own words."