Critics blasted Democrats for “embarrassing” a majority black Westchester County metropolis after a police bigwig was arrested for becoming a member of her gangbanger son on a drive-by taking pictures within the Bronx.
Locals mentioned Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard has left the residents of Mount Vernon with extra questions than solutions after the Democratic chief blamed Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard’s hiring on deceased former Commissioner Glenn Scott — and countrywide police reforms following George Floyd’s killing.
Now one fiery legislation enforcement activist and others are calling for a proper probe.
Lackard, 49, a sorority sister of Patterson-Howard, was employed by her for the high-up place in 2020 when she had zero police expertise, an ex-con hubby and a troubled son in a Bronx avenue gang.
“This ought to be a chance to show what skilled Black management, accountable authorities and efficient community-based policing can seem like,” Damon Okay. Jones, a consultant for Blacks in Regulation Enforcement of America, railed in a press launch.
“As a substitute, the failures coming from Metropolis Corridor and police management have repeatedly embarrassed the division and overshadowed the work of the various devoted officers who proceed to serve the group professionally.”
Locals blasted the mayor, who sources instructed The Publish could have been urged to rent Lackard by Democratic powerbroker Rev. Franklyn Richardson of Grace Baptist Church, the place they each attended companies.
“It’s favoritism,” charged CB Griffin, 54, a Mount Vernon grocer. “You’ll most likely discover lots of that on this metropolis authorities.”
Mount Vernon, a metropolis of 72,000 folks and a identified Democratic stronghold, isn’t any stranger to controversy.
The arrest is the most recent stain on the troubled metropolis, which has seen two sitting mayors arrested whereas in workplace and a number of police division controversies.
The mayors — Ernie Davis and Richard Thomas — left workplace after being charged with federal tax evasion and state grand larceny prices.
Thomas, who has blamed his prices on politics, referred to as for President Trump to open up a probe within the beleaguered metropolis.
“Letting the rigged Mt. Vernon machine function above the legislation is like ignoring Iran constructing nuclear weapons,” he mentioned in an announcement.
“The easy fact is, at this level, solely President Trump has the ability to cease terrorism overseas and restore liberty proper right here at residence, particularly in Mt. Vernon.”
The requires probes come after Lackard was busted by the NYPD for allegedly driving the getaway automotive for her son and reputed “Slutty Gang” member Chase Lackard, 20, as he tried to gun down a rival or rivals exterior a Bronx courthouse earlier this summer time.
The now fired deputy commissioner has been charged with tried homicide for the June 29 taking pictures.
Her husband, James Lackard, an ex-convict who spent almost a decade behind bars for dealing heroin, was additionally arrested a number of days later.
The household orchestrated the taking pictures, with the doting mother even texting the son directions, in accordance with a stunning indictment.
“You possibly can’t simply sit instantly exterior,” she allegedly texted her son whereas he waited for rivals exterior the courthouse.
“It must be timed proper.”
Regulation enforcement activist Jones, who can be writer of the Mount Vernon-centric newspaper Black Westchester, additionally mentioned the mayor failed in her management and lied when blaming Scott, who died in 2024, for Lackard’s hiring.
“Glenn Scott would by no means have advisable inserting a person with no policing background or police expertise into the place of Deputy Police Commissioner,” he mentioned.
“Mount Vernon deserves management that accepts accountability — not management that rewrites historical past.”
