RI police union pushes back against racism allegations from Patriots player Christian Barmore - Boston News, Weather, Sports

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WHDH) - A Rhode Island police union is pushing back after Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore accused officers of being racist when they pulled him over in Providence Wednesday.

With the release of the police body camera video , Michael Imondi, president of the Providence Fraternal Order of Police, said the public can see the officers did nothing wrong when they conducted the traffic stop that morning. He now wants Barmore to admit that he was wrong and apologize to the officers.

"If he was so willing to come out so quickly and so publicly on a huge platform to condemn the officers' actions, then he should come out in the same way and say that he was wrong and apologizes. It's that simple," Imondi said.

The 25-year-old Patriots player posted the accusation of racism on X at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

"I just experienced for the first time 5 Providence cops being very unprofessional racism at it's finest," Barmore wrote.

Imondi said police pulled Barmore over because they couldn't see the numbers on his license plate and he had tinted glass on his car windows, which is illegal in Rhode Island.

"I can't tell who's in the car until you roll down the window. So, how could I have stopped you and based my stop on racism?" Imondi said.

The union claims Barmore was the one to inflame the routine traffic stop, by loudly screaming racial slurs. They said Barmore banged the steering wheel, puffed out his chest, and used foul language.

While Barmore did eventually take the X post down, the union said his false claims hurt them.

"Condemning officers for racism when there was no racism there, that paints not only those four or five officers with a broad brush, but it paints the whole police department and law enforcement with a broad brush, and that's just unfair," Imondi said.

The union president said police would have been justified in charging Barmore with disorderly conduct, but they did not. However, he is facing citations for the traffic violations.

Barmore's agent did not respond to a request for comment.