NEW YORK — Actress Susan Sarandon in an eyebrow-raising tweet has called into question the need for police in New York City — and she did it by reposting a message likening cops at the funeral for fallen Officer Jason Rivera to fascists.
Sarandon posted to Twitter at 5:53 p.m. Tuesday as thousands of cops and New Yorkers gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the wake for slain NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora.
Her tweet included a repost of a picture of a sea of uniformed cops filling Fifth Avenue for the funeral for Mora’s partner Rivera last week. “I’m gonna tell me kids this is what fascism looks like,” the headline on the original tweet reads.
“So, if all these cops weren’t needed for CRIME that day, doesn’t that mean they aren’t needed ANY day,” a headline in Sarandon’s post over the retweeted photo reads.
Sarandon has been critical of the NYPD in the past.
“Shame on you,” she tweeted at former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2020 after he lauded the NYPD for “tremendous restraint overall” during the George Floyd protests.
The city Department of Investigation later blasted police for excessive force during a number of the protests — and de Blasio apologized for how the NYPD dealt with protesters.
Sarandon was arrested in March 1999 outside One Police Plaza, where protesters gathered for weeks pf civil disobedience after an unarmed street vendor, Amadou Diallo, was shot dead by cops at his Bronx building.
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