Chief: Officer's Proud Boys membership didn't break policy

A Connecticut police officer's membership in the Proud Boys, a far-right group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies, didn't violate department policies, the town's police chief has concluded in response to a civil rights group's concerns.

The East Hampton officer, Kevin P. Wilcox, "stopped his association" with the Proud Boys in February, about five months before the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law inquired about his social media connections with other group members, Police Chief Dennis Woessner said.

In a letter to the Washington-based civil rights group, the police chief acknowledged that Wilcox had been a Proud Boys member and made online payments to a group leader. The rights group described those publicly visible, online transactions as monthly dues that helped fund the Proud Boys' "violent or otherwise illegal" activities.

But the chief said he reviewed the matter, received an "explanatory report" from Wilcox and closed the department's inquiry as being "unfounded," with no evidence to support a policy violation. Wilcox "adamantly denies being associated with white supremacists' groups," the chief wrote in a letter dated Sept. 13.

Kristen Clarke, the civil rights group's president and executive director, said she was "astounded" by the police chief's refusal to take any action against the officer.

"In an era where we are seeing a spike in white supremacist activity, this should sound an alarm. It should not be business as usual," Clarke said during an interview Tuesday.

Wilcox didn't immediately respond Tuesday to a message left at the town's police station or a text message and voicemail left at an apparent telephone listing for him.

He has been an East Hampton police officer since 1999 and never had any complaints of racial bias made against him, according to Woessner. The chief said department records show Wilcox, who patrols a town with an overwhelmingly white population, has stopped only white people between January 2018 and September 2019.

"There is no question that he is not a white supremacist," Woessner said Tuesday.

Asked what he knows about the Proud Boys, the chief said, "Only what I searched on the internet."

East Hampton has roughly 13,000 residents and is about 20 miles southeast of Hartford. On its website, the town's police department says it currently has 11 officers and four sergeants.

An initial letter from Clarke to Woessner, dated July 24, noted that a federal jury in 2008 awarded more than $27,000 in damages to a man who accused Wilcox and other East Hampton officers of using excessive force during an arrest.

The plaintiff, Alan P. Clark, claimed Wilcox repeatedly struck him in the head with a metal flashlight while trying to subdue him. Clark said he needed about 14 staples to close his head wounds.

Jurors concluded that Wilcox violated Clark's constitutional right to be free from excessive force and decided the officer was liable for just over $11,000 in damages to compensate Clark for his injuries. An attorney who represented Clark said Tuesday that the parties reached a confidential settlement less than two months after the trial.

"Officer Wilcox's association with white supremacists on public platforms, as well as his history of violence, risks interfering with your department's operations by disrupting the working relationships between the East Hampton Police Department and the community it serves," Clarke wrote in her July 24 letter to the chief.

In a Sept. 26 response to the chief's Sept. 13 letter, Clarke wrote that the police department should immediately review any stops, arrests or investigations by Wilcox "to determine whether or not they were infected with racial bias." She also asked for a list of any complaints against the officer involving allegations of racial bias, discrimination or harassment.

The chief hasn't responded to the letter, Clarke said.

Wilcox isn't the first law enforcement officer linked to the Proud Boys, a group started in 2016 by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes.

Last year, a Louisiana sheriff's department fired a deputy who had publicly identified himself as a Proud Boys member and was an administrator of the Facebook page for the group's local chapter. The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office said its deputy violated an internal policy prohibiting employees from engaging in social media activity that "negatively affects the public perception" of the department, The New Orleans Advocate reported in August 2018.

McIness and the Proud Boys have described the group as a politically incorrect men's club for "Western chauvinists" and deny affiliations with far-right extremist groups that overtly espouse racist and anti-Semitic views. In February, McInnes sued the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling the Proud Boys as a hate group.

In response to the lawsuit, the law center said Proud Boy members often spread "outright bigotry" over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and "known neo-Nazis."

"Soon after McInnes unveiled the Proud Boys to the world, the group began making headlines for its members' involvement in often-violent, ideological street confrontations with other groups," law center attorneys wrote in a court filing.

In New York City in October 2018, police arrested several Proud Boys members who brawled with anti-fascist protesters following a speech by McInnes at a Manhattan Republican club. Proud Boys members also have frequently clashed with counterprotesters at rallies in California and Oregon.

Clarke noted that the Philadelphia Police Department placed 72 officers on administrative leave in June after a nonprofit group published a review of personal Facebook posts or comments by officers in several U.S. police departments, including messages that were racist, Islamophobic and identified with right-wing militia groups.

Follow Michael Kunzelman on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Kunzelman75 .

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on hundreds of companies and people tied to Russia's weapons development program, more than a dozen Chinese entities accused of helping Moscow find workarounds to earlier penalties, and individuals linked to the death of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The actions by the departments of Treasury and State target Russia’s military-industrial base, chemical weapons programs and people and companies in third countries that help Russia acquire weapons components as its invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the action “will further disrupt and degrade Russia’s war efforts by going after its military industrial base and the evasion networks that help supply it.”

The Senate, meanwhile, gave final approval to legislation barring imports of Russian uranium, boosting U.S. efforts to disrupt Russia’s war in Ukraine. Democratic President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

About 12% of the uranium used to produce electricity at U.S. nuclear power plants is imported from Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said Wednesday that Biden shares lawmakers’ concerns about U.S. reliance on Russia for low-enriched uranium to support its domestic nuclear fleet.

Included in the administration's announcement are importers of cotton cellulose and nitrocellulose, which are used to produce gunpowder, rocket propellants and other explosives. The penalties also target Russian government entities and people tied to Russia's chemical and biological weapons programs, companies related to Russia's natural gas construction projects and three workers at the penal colony where Navalny died.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has railed against earlier rounds of U.S. and Western penalties, claiming they are “illegitimate sanctions” on his country.

A group of 16 targets in China and Hong Kong, most of which are related to Russian procurement workarounds, are named by the Biden administration.

Yellen traveled to Guangzhou and Beijing last month to warn Chinese officials that they “must not provide material support for Russia’s war and that they will face significant consequences if they do."

China has said it is not providing Russia with arms or military assistance, although Beijing has maintained robust economic connections with Moscow, alongside India and other countries, as the West imposes sanctions.

Companies in China, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were accused of helping Russia acquire technology and equipment from abroad. The penalties aim to block them from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.

Biden last week said he would immediately rush badly needed weaponry to Ukraine as he signed into law a $95 billion war aid measure that also included assistance for Israel, Taiwan and other global hot spots.

The upcoming uranium ban is also expected to impact Russian revenues by at least $1 billion. The U.S. banned Russian oil imports after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022 but did not against uranium, despite frequent calls to do so by U.S. lawmakers in both parties.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the import ban “a tremendous victory” and said it “will help defund Russia’s war machine, revive American uranium production and jumpstart investments in America’s nuclear fuel supply chain.″

“Wyoming has the uranium to replace Russian imports, and we’re ready to use it,″ Barrasso added.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who heads that Senate committee, said it was "unconscionable” for the U.S. to help make it possible for Putin to “finance his unlawful war against Ukraine” through U.S. reliance on Russian uranium.

Besides the import ban, the legislation frees up $2.7 billion in previously authorized funding to ramp up domestic uranium production.

FILE- This June 6, 2019, file photo shows the U.S. Treasury Department building at dusk in Washington. The United States has imposed new sanctions on hundreds of firms and people tied to Russia’s weapons development program, more than a dozen Chinese firms accused of helping Russia find workarounds to sanctions and individuals tied to the death of Russian dissident Alexey Navalny. The sanctions imposed Wednesday by the Treasury and State departments target Russia’s military-industrial base, chemical weapons programs and people and firms in third countries that help Russia acquire weapons components as its invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)