The case against a DC police lieutenant accused of helping Proud Boys is growing increasingly 'terrifying'
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced earlier this month that District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Lt. Shane Lamond had been indicted on four federal criminal charges: one for obstruction of justice, three for making false statements. DOJ prosecutors allege that Lamond shared police information with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and tipped him off about a case against him: the one in which he was arrested for his part in burning a Black Lives Matter sign that had been stolen from an African-American church in late 2020.
Lamond's arrest follows Tarrio's conviction in a separate case. Tarrio, along with three other members of the Proud Boys, was found guilty of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.
In an article published on May 26, Politico's Michael Schaffer emphasizes that the allegations against Lamond are especially troubling in light of his position in the MPD.
"The indicted officer is not some random beat cop," Schaffer notes. "A 24-year veteran of the department, Lamond led the Intelligence Branch of the department’s Homeland Security unit until last year, when he was suspended after coming under investigation. That investigation culminated in a May 19 obstruction of justice indictment for allegedly lying to investigators who were looking into the relationship with Tarrio…. According to prosecutors, Lamond and Tarrio communicated 500 times beginning in 2019, often via chummy exchanges."
Michael Fanone, a former MPD officer who was violently attacked by Donald Trump supporters inside the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, has been sounding the alarm about far-right extremists working for police departments.
Fanone, now a CNN contributor, told Politico, "I think that most law enforcement agencies in this country are scrambling to maintain the officers they have and recruit new ones to replace the hundreds that they've lost. The last thing that they're worried about is coming up with a comprehensive screening process for domestic extremism.”
Schaffer warns that "the idea of even a small number of domestic extremists" being on the MPD "ought to be terrifying."
Civil rights attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard told Politico, "You'd be hard-pressed to think of a city where this is a more critical issue than Washington, D.C. What happens the next time we go on the January 6 path, which we all know could happen? What happens if there's this festering group within the MPD that haven't been weeded out? It's very dangerous.”