The following was reported in the Highlands Current by Michael Turton on July 3, 2020.
"Officer was involved in 2012 shooting death in New York City
The Cold Spring Village Board on June 23 accepted the resignation of Officer Scott Morris. He had been hired late last year but agreed to resign after residents protested his role as supervisor at the scene of a police killing of an 18-year-old man in the Bronx in 2012.
Morris was not charged but faced New York Police Department reprimands for “failure to notify police communications” and “failure to supervise members during a police incident.” He resigned from the NYPD in 2017.
The vote was 3-0. Mayor Dave Merandy was absent and Trustee Fran Murphy abstained, saying later that she felt the board had done its due diligence before hiring Morris.
“I didn’t want him to resign; it wasn’t fair to him,” she said. Murphy said Morris, who provided details of the 2012 incident when interviewed by the board, had indicated he would resign if the incident ever became an issue.
https://highlandscurrent.org/2020/07/03/village-board-accepts-resignation/
I also want to include a short quote from Mayor Merandy's opening remarks at the June 9, 2020 Town Hall Meeting which were transcribed by Cassie Traina:
"There have been some nasty posts that have shown up on Facebook, I understand or in some of the emails regarding Mr. Morris. I don't know how much research everyone's done, if they're just cutting and pasting." He went on to say "I think there's a few ways you can deal with things and one of them I think, is not making demands and uh forcing something. It's first getting information and, and you know, and asking, actually, the people who were involved, you know, what was going on and how things were handled. Unfortunately, that's not how this happened. Unfortunately, leaflets are passed out, this is taken as gospel and we run with it. It's kind of a mob mentality as far as I'm concerned type of a way to deal with it."
I am so relieved that conversations on racial inequality and social justice have come to light in our small town and that largely due to the efforts of high school and college students, Scott Morris will no longer be an officer of the CSPD. While this is a big win, I am frustrated by how this was covered in the Current.
Cassie Traina was the only member of the public let alone organizer from the campaign (Cold Spring Community Action) to make a statement, and she was allowed to do so only after she requested to. In comparison, several members of the Board of Trustees, as well as Mayor Merandy issued statements, all of which demonstrated the same point of view. In the article, I was distressed to see the Mayor’s and Board’s nearly unanimous defensiveness of their decision that seems to be motivated more by self-preservation than the safety of the community. I was even more disappointed by the lack of leadership that Mayor Merandy displayed in his absence during the vote in which Morris’ resignation was accepted and his inability to participate in a productive conversation with his constituents. Instead, he has maintained a hostile attitude toward concerned members of the Philipstown community and has seemingly taken no steps to make Cold Spring a safer, more inclusive town for Black and Brown people.
While I am comforted by the fact that The Current maintains that the actions of Scott Morris during his tenure at the NYPD were troubling, I believe The Current lost an opportunity to bring this to light at the time of his hiring and missed the chance to give Cold Spring Community Action a platform, and we must do better. Local news is an integral check on government power, and needs to be handled with the utmost care. Regardless, it is the Board’s, Mayor Dave Merandy’s and Officer in Charge Larry Burke’s responsibility to inform the public and be transparent, instead of being unforthcoming and chastising concerned members of the community.
I look forward to seeing more coverage and more research by The Current, in addition to more transparency from our elected officials as we continue to fight for justice in our community