NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – An NYPD lieutenant apologized for kneeling during a protest in Manhattan last month, reportedly writing "the cop in me wants to kick my own a**" in an email to fellow officers.
Lt. Robert Cattani, who works at the Midtown South Precinct, kneeled alongside several officers after protesters urged them to "take a knee" during a demonstration in Foley Square in lower Manhattan on May 31.
According to an email obtained by the New York Post, Cattani wrote that it was a "horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters' demands."
Cattani said he and the other officers "were put center stage with the entire crowd chanting" and "didn't know how the protesters would have reacted if we didn't."
"I thought maybe that one protester/rioters who saw it would later think twice about fighting or hurting a cop," Cattani wrote. "I was wrong."
In the email, Cattani condemned Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer accused of murdering George Floyd while in police custody. "We all know that a**hole in Minneapolis was wrong," Cattani wrote.
But he wrote he was "shamed and humiliated" after kneeling at the urging of protesters and even considered leaving the department.
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