I can hear the bass strumming along with the words: Another one bites the dust. Another one bites the dust. Michael J. Reynolds, the white New York Police Department officer who broke into a black woman’s home in Tennessee during and apparent drunken rage and threatened her and her sons, has resigned from the police force.
As The Root reported, Reynolds forced himself into the Nashville, Tenn., home of Conese Halliburton on July 9, 2018, hurled racial threats at Halliburton and her sons, and threatened to kill them.
Reynolds pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated criminal trespassing and three counts of assault and was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years’ probation, according to NBC News.
Reynolds, who was on modified-duty status while the trial proceeded in Tennessee, was to report to NYPD headquarters so the department could prepare a disciplinary case against him. Instead, he resigned, effective immediately, NBC News reports.
“He will receive no pension or health benefits, nor will he be allowed to carry a firearm,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Halliburton had asked the NYPD to fire Reynolds, a position echoed by more than 12,000 people who signed a petition calling for the officer’s removal.
“Michael Reynolds is a violent and dangerous racist who has no business carrying either a badge or a gun,” her attorney, Daniel Horwitz, said in an email to NBC News.
Although I’d hoped to see the NYPD fire Reynolds as proof that he was a persona non grata, what’s most important is that he’s gone, even if it’s via resignation.
What I’d love to see is Halliburton and her boys receive some sort of compensation for their trauma. I’m not sure what that would look like: compensation for pain and suffering via a civil lawsuit? Money for counseling? The emotional pain and trauma she and her sons experienced cannot be overestimated. To be violated in such a way in your own home—and at the hands of a police officer—well, you just don’t get over that easily.