Assistant Police Chief Luiz Casanova is in hot water after allegedly calling a patrol officer a “fucking mope” for how he wore a department-issued knit cap.
Interim Police Chief Anthony Campbell issued a press release Wednesday afternoon stating that he “is investigating a verbal interaction” between Casanova and an officer. The release said little else except to state that, contrary to rumors, the incident was not “racial” in nature. (The officer wearing the hat is black and male.)
Casanova could not be reached for comment. The officer declined comment. Casanova is out of the office on a two-day administrative leave.
People familiar with the incident said Casanova called the officer a “fucking mope” because he disapproved of the the way the officer wore the knit cap.
The incident occurred in the presence of other officers in front a police substation in the Hill neighborhood. Here’s what happened, based on accounts from several people familiar with it:
Casanova noticed the officer wearing the knit cap while on duty. “The rest of the uniform looks good,” he reportedly told the officer. Except for the cap. It makes “you look like a fucking mope,” he said.
Excuse me? the officer asked.
“You look like a fucking mope,” Casanova repeated.
The officer — who had been specifically trained at the police academy to avoid using the term “mope” because it is sometimes understood to have racial connotations similar to “the n‑word” — walked away. (The term was popularized in the television series The Wire.)
Casanova subsequently summoned the officer, over the police radio, to his office on the third floor of police headquarters. The officer arrived with a union representative present. Casanova did reportedly apologize to the officer when it was all over.
Word of the incident spread fast through the department.
“When you have an officer below you, those are words you should never say,” said Officer James Baker, who sits on the executive board of the New Haven Guardians, a group that represents African-American cops.