RI's Fired Dancing Cop Finds Himself at Intersection of Race Debate

For more than 30 years, Rhode Island’s nationally-famous Dancing Cop, Tony Lepore, brought smiles to the streets of downtown Providence every holiday season as he directed traffic with shimmies, boogies and spins.

This year, Lepore, a former Providence police officer who sports a trademark painter’s brush mustache, will be absent from the state’s capitol city thanks to a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup, the Black Lives Matter movement and the power of social media to both inflame and organize.

In a state known for oddities like coffee-syrup in milk and a giant blue termite along the side of Interstate 95, this holiday story is a microcosm of both the state’s penchant for generating curious news and the broader issue of race and policing embroiling communities around the country.

For most Rhode Islanders, Lepore has for years represented a friendly, familial piece among the state’s roster of icons. A favorite at parades and schools, the Dancing Cop until now had been considered a pleasant if not innocuous figure appearing regularly on the local news whenever his annual gig with the city of Providence approached each December.

This year, Lepore has thrust himself into a much different spotlight, beginning with his decision in October to lead a protest against a 17-year-old employee of a Dunkin’ Donuts.

That employee scrawled #blacklivesmatter on a coffee cup. The customer was a Providence police officer. Before long, a picture of the cup appeared on social media and from there, it spread.

Some members of the Providence Police Union were upset by the employee’s act and Dunkin’ Donuts promptly issued a public apology. Lepore took it a step further and organized a protest outside the Federal Hill store at the center of the controversy and has called the Black Lives Matter movement “terrible” and “detrimental” in several interviews.

His protest was met with anger from the Providence Public Safety Department’s top brass, and he was fired last week. Though Lepore said he led the protest as a private citizen, the Public Safety Commissioner disagreed and said his actions “were a disservice to the department and members of the Providence community” in a statement.

Lepore took to social media, posting on Facebook that he can perform traffic duties anywhere and said “my popularity in RI is bigger than it’s every been [sic].”

“I had a good run,” he said. “I’m known all over the country, but I wasn’t doing it for myself. I was doing it for the town. I gave the town so much publicity. No one knew where Rhode Island was in 1984.”

Within days, Lepore announced that he had been hired by the nearby city of East Providence to direct traffic, and would kick off his appearances there during the holiday season at that city’s annual Christmas tree lighting celebration on Sunday.

While many cheered that Lepore had found a new place to perform his smooth moves, not everyone was happy. Several East Providence residents decided to protest outside the Sunday ceremony, prompting Lepore to announce on Facebook that he had to cancel “out of my concern for the children’s safety.”

“It is unfortunate that leftist agendas must spoil this happy event. It is evident these groups are biased,” he wrote.

Tough Lepore said that he got a call from East Providence Mayor Tommy Rose informing him that groups affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement were behind the protest, the person who actually helped organize it said that’s not the case.

“The protests weren’t affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, though some of us are sympathetic,” said Rodrigo Pimentel, an East Providence resident and University of Rhode Island student.

Pimentel described the gathering he helped organize as a peaceful assemblage of concerned residents who don’t want the city to sponsor someone who “has a record of allowing very racist posts on his profile page.”

Pimentel, in an interview, said that Lepore has inflamed and “created a divide” within the city. He noted posts that Lepore

“We don’t need this divide here,” Pimentel said, who characterized Lepore’ appearance on FOX News and the local conservative talk radio shows as “pandering.”

As it turns out, the gathering was much less dramatic than Lepore’s social media posts would suggest. He insisted in his decision to not appear at the event in the hours leading up to the tree lighting that “I am not backing down to them.

“I am worried about the safety of the public. If they still show up, and they start trouble, they are the ones that will look bad,” he wrote.

After the crowd of 30 residents voiced their concerns to reporters who showed up to report on the event, the tree lighting went on without much fanfare. Rose, the mayor, reportedly “angrily dismissed” the protesters, according to the Providence Journal, saying “we don’t have an issue in East Providence as far as race goes. There is no racial discrimination here.”

Rose’s remarks rankled some, including members of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which penned a stern letter to the city earlier this year warning them that they were violating their Affirmative Action policies.

And Lepore, referencing the Providence Journal’s report on Monday about the protest on Sunday, said it was “misleading,” and he claims he was misled to believe there would be four Black Lives Matter groups protesting – not the smattering of East Providence residents.

“The majority of the people of the town want me there,” he said.

In another twist, it turns out that Lepore’s announcement that he had been hired by the city was a bit premature. Again, on Facebook, Lepore thanked the East Providence mayor profusely as he announced that he had found a new job there. In other Facebook posts, City Councilor Tracy Capobianco said that she called the mayor when she heard that Lapore was fired from Providence and “we should get him for a few days here during the holidays.”

“All I did was call Tommy Rose and he made it happen,” she wrote, as reported by Steve Ahlquist at RI Future.

The next day, city officials clarified the situation and said that Lepore had not been summarily hired, but instead, the City Council was set to vote on whether to give Lepore the job at its meeting Tuesday night. All Rose ever did, apparently, was put the matter on the agenda on Capobianco’s behalf.

On Monday, Lepore said that whether he performs in EP “will come down to a vote.”

“As for me being a racist,” he wrote, “there is nothing further from the truth. This is not a black or white issue. That’s the only leg they have to stand on. There is absolutely no valid reason for any protest against me. My stance is and always will be that “ALL” colors matter.”

For Pimentel, “there is a split in the city, but it’s not as drastic as social media makes it out to be,” he said.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions here,” Pimetnel said. “What Black Lives Matter is actually about, the point is that African Americans should be treated as equals. It’s not meant to separate people but point out what these groups are facing.”

Photo courtesy: ABC6