‘Dancing Cop’ is pulled from fi refighters parade

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Unlike the last five years, “Dancing Cop” Tony Lepore will not be part of the annual South Kingstown Fire Fighters Relief Association parade on Sept. 24.

Lepore, 69, who until 2015 was hired every December to entertain drivers and pedestrians with his high-energy, whistle-blowing, butt-wiggling traffic cop routine at certain Providence intersections, became a controversial figure when he led a boycott of a Dunkin’ Donuts branch where an employee had written “Black Lives Matter” on a coffee cup and handed it to a police officer.

“I stuck up for a police officer. That’s it,” Lepore said Thursday in discussing why he is characterized as holding racist and white supremacist views.

Amber Collins, 40, is a South Kingstown mother who is studying to become a minister and launched a social media campaign against Lepore being in the parade. “I understand that I have privilege,” she said Thursday. “I will use that privilege to stand up against white supremacy.”

In July, she created a change.org petition to persuade parade organizers that Lepore did not belong among the marching bands, fife and drum corps and bagpipers.

The petition said, in part: “Mr. LePore has gained local and national attention for his controversial, combative and racist public statements” and that “it is not appropriate for a person with Mr. LePore’s history and reputation to dance down our Main Street alongside our local true heroes, our own volunteer firefighters.”

By Thursday, the petition had 535 supporters.

Nathan Street, president of the relief association, issued a letter Wednesday saying the parade organizers had voted in August to withdraw Lepore’s invitation.

The reason: Potential disruptions at the parade “could possibly be a risk to public safety,” Street’s letter says. But the committee still had a contractual obligation, so Lepore was paid.

Within 10 minutes of learning he had been uninvited, Lepore said, he accepted a parade in Mendon, Massachusetts.

The South Kingstown parade, which steps off at 1 p.m. from Holly Street in Wakefield and ends at the Peace Dale Fire Station, celebrates volunteer firefighters and remembers those lost in the line of duty. This year, the parade will also celebrate 150 years of volunteer firefighting, the state’s second oldest volunteer department.

Lepore said he didn’t want the parade to be marred by protests because of his participation, but he’s sorry he’ll miss it. “I’d like to be there to honor the firemen.”

—dnaylor@ providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @donita22