VENICE (WSNN) – The Venice Mayor gets his inner cop on and joins a traffic stop.
Venice Mayor Ron Feinsod is captured on video arriving on scene at a Venice PD traffic stop. Feinsod is in the white shirt.
VPD Captain Charlie Thorpe says back on the evening of June 20th two officers pulled a black man over for an expired license plate at the intersection of northbound U.S. 41 and West Venice Avenue. Thorpe says it turns out his license was suspended as well.
“In the process of issuing a citation, we can see in the distance that a person is observing from the corner, that’s Mayor Feinsod; perfectly fine. Please, feel free to observe from a distance,” Captain Thorpe said.
Then, the officer goes around the corner, and Captain Thorpe says they give the man an opportunity to call someone with a license to pick him up.
That’s when Mayor Feinsod approached the two officers.
“I just happened to come from around socially distancing in a protest,” Mayor Feinsod said. “And I see you have a person of color pulled over and I was just curious as to what the issue is.”
It’s a very cordial conversation, but Captain Thorpe questions the approach.
“It all ended very well but there’s some issue with, ‘what’s the right approach in a circumstance like this?” Captain Thorpe said.
Mayor Feinsod apologized in a council budget meeting on Thursday. The mayor said he reacted to police officers pulling over a person of *color* after attending a George Floyd vigil highlighting racism and education.
“Because of my heightened awareness, I may have been overly concerned,” Mayor Feinsod said. “It was never my intention to interfere with the police. Maybe I was a little unaware of the situation that I put them in, and that was unintentional and I apologize. I do apologize for to city council, to the police, and to the residents of Venice for my lack of judgment.”
He adds even if he wasn’t the mayor, he still would have stepped in as a concerned citizen.
I spoke to the mayor by phone, and he said “It was an arrogant judgment on my part.”
“Post facts, let’s observe from a distance is a message we’re asking,” Captain Thorpe said. “And we’ll certainly talk to you after we’re completed with what we’re doing.”
The mayor and Captain Thorpe are ready to move on:
“Let’s just recognize it for what it is, officers doing a good job, and the mayor asking questions, and let’s just kind of back it up a bit and realize that a lesson was learned, and there was an acknowledgment of a mistake, I’m happy to move on,” Captain Thorpe said.
He says VPD is always ready to serve and more than willing to answer questions.
Mayor Feinsod says he plans to address his apology in the public council meeting on July 14th.
