Man who executed a police officer sits on police reform panel in NY

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Richard Rivera murdered an NYPD police officer execution-style in 1981.  Currently, he is the latest recruit to sit on a panel to discuss police reform in New York.

Rivera was convicted of the Jan. 12, 1981, murder of NYPD Officer Robert Walsh. He spent 39 years in prison for his crime, the New York Post reported.

The killer was 16 years old when he and four other armed teenagers attempted to rob the BVD Bar and Grill in Queens.

Walsh, a 36-year-old cop with 12 years of service, was off-duty and at the bar when the gun-toting teens attempted their heist.

The Post picks it up here:

As the hero off-duty officer identified himself as a cop and reached for his gun to try to stop the robbery, Rivera shot him in the shoulder. Rivera then walked over to the officer as he lay helplessly wounded on the floor, pressed his gun to the cop’s head and blasted him again, authorities said.

Rivera was released in 2019 and told the Post that he has since been working with a nonprofit to provide food and shelter for the homeless.

The panel he sits on is for Ithaca and Tompkins County that will help plan police reform in upstate New York, as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative executive order that was signed in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Every local government has to come up with a plan.

Officer Walsh’s son, Robert Walsh Jr., told the paper, “We’re completely shocked that the man who murdered my father is being trusted to create police reforms. My father dedicated his life to serving and protecting New Yorkers. He should be the one serving on a panel to help reimagine policing, but he’ll never get that chance.”

The president of the police union told the Post that putting Rivera on the reform panel is “outrageous and despicable.”

“Not only did this cop-killer get paroled, but now he gets a seat at the table to help dismantle a police department. Did anybody expect him to be fair and open-minded in his review?” Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said.

“The entire process has trampled on the ideals that police officers like Robert Walsh upheld,” Lynch added. “It’s the ultimate disrespect to his service and sacrifice.”

All these cop killers are getting out of jail thanks to Andrew Cuomo, the man who killed the elderly in nursing homes.


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John Vieira
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John Vieira
2 years ago

Understand what IS going down yet???