Copper Banned in Rhode Island....

...from doing one of the relatively harmless things coppers can do; direct traffic.





NyPo explains:

A second [Rhode Island] city on Tuesday withdrew its invitation for Rhode Island’s “Dancing Cop” to direct holiday traffic because of his activism against the Black Lives Matter movement...

East Providence Mayor Thomas Rose called Tony Lepore on Tuesday morning to tell him city leaders did not support his planned performance, Lepore said. A City Council vote that had been scheduled for Tuesday evening was canceled.

Lepore, who retired from the Providence Police Department in 1989, has been directing traffic with dance moves since 1984. His act became a holiday tradition in Providence. But city officials told Lepore last month they were letting him go after he organized a small protest outside a coffee shop where a worker wrote “#blacklivesmatter” on another officer’s cup.

Officials in neighboring East Providence then invited Lepore to perform, but that sparked a protest attended by dozens of people, including Providence NAACP president Jim Vincent.

  -RW