A retired Connecticut police officer griped that a civil rights organization who filed a complaint against him over his affiliation with the Proud Boys right wing group was trying to “silence conservative voices,” according to a report.
Former East Hampton Police Officer Kevin Wilcox, 53, who admitted to once being a member of the Proud Boys, vented his frustrations in a letter to his old police chief, Dennis Woessner, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Wilcox was responding to a July 24 letter sent to Woessner from the The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Kristen Clarke, the president of the civil rights group, urged the department to probe Wilcox’s “possible connections with white supremacist groups and individuals.”
The group had pointed to Wilcox’s social media connections with Proud Boys’ members.
Clarke, in her letter, referred to Proud Boys as a “male-chauvinist group with ties to white nationalism.”
Woessner asked Wilcox to provide him with a written response to Clarke’s accusations.
Kristen ClarkeAPWilcox, in his July 31 response, called Clarke’s allegations that he associated with white supremacists “an outright lie and assault on my character.”
The retired officer characterizes himself as a once-“passive” Proud Boys member.
“They were childish and annoying,” he wrote of the group, which he quit in February.
Wilcox, in his letter, said he quit the group over concerns its members would be attacked by “far-left political organizations.”
Wilcox added: “Clarke’s letter is filled with links to far-left propaganda that expose her motive, which is to silence conservative voices.”
Included in Clarke’s letter were links to several articles published by news publications such as National Public Radio and PBS.
Woessner in September told Clarke’s organization that Wilcox’s Proud Boys membership didn’t violate department policies.
Wilcox retired soon after on Oct. 22.
Clarke told The Associated Press that her group’s “sole goal is ensuring public safety at a time of increasing hate activity, extremism and racial violence.”
With Post wires
