Footage in which a police officer in Passaic, New Jersey can be heard threatening a Latino couple has incited hundreds of community members to demand his dismissal from the force.
Sgt. Roy Bordamonte's voice was caught on cell phone video cursing and shouting at Jazmin Vidal and her boyfriend while they sat on their porch, The Record reports.
Vidal told NBC New York that the officer drove up and started talking to them, and became incensed after they asked him to get out of his vehicle.
In the footage, which started gaining attention online this month, the cell phone camera is trained on Vidal and her boyfriend, and the police officer’s voice and radio can be heard in the background.
“You go to school?” Bordamonte says. “What school? What are you, fucking special ed? You fucking idiot. You might be an idiot because you mouthed off. That’s why you’re going to get this ticket.”
He then starts threatening to have the man's family deported:
I’m going to knock on your door and I’m going to check your mom and dad’s ID, and all your fucking cousins, and when they give me that bullshit fucking name, I’m gonna have immigration pick everybody up so they can go back to the fucking border in Puebla or where the fuck they came from and all that work … they came to America, you fucked it up.
The video prompted a rally of hundreds of people outside the Passaic City Hall Tuesday night, demanding the officer be fired. NBC New York notes that 70 percent of the residents of Passaic identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Thursday saw a crowd of about 150, still pushing for the department to either fire Bordamonte or force him to resign. Organizer Diomedes Minaya told The Record that Bordamonte is known for giving out meaningless citations.
“People get stopped on the street for nothing,” Minaya said. “The police are abusing their power.”
The Passaic police department has not replied to a request for comment by The Huffington Post, but Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco released a statement urging residents to stay calm while the city investigates the matter.
Bordamonte was the head of the department’s bias crimes unit, which investigates racially motivated crimes, though Police Chief Rosario Capuana removed Bordamonte from the unit after becoming aware of the video. Bordamonte remains in charge of the “Quality of Life” unit, though he’s placed on desk duty for the time being, according to a memo obtained by The Record.
An online petition to remove Bordamonte from the department has more than 2,000 signatures.
Contact the author of this article at Hilary.Hanson@huffingtonpost.com
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