City to review arrest of man who questioned Pittsburgh cop's 'Thin Blue Line' mask at farmers market

Pittsburgh’s municipal investigating arm is examining the arrest Sunday of a man by an off-duty police officer at a Squirrel Hill farmers market after videos of the incident surfaced on social media and spurred backlash from police accountability activists, officials said Tuesday.

The incident started with a Squirrel Hill man taking issue with a Pittsburgh police officer’s Thin Blue Line face mask and ended with the man’s arrest, according to police, the criminal complaint against the man and videos taken by witnesses.

Daniel Evan Holc, 22, is charged with resisting arrest, defiant trespass, disorderly conduct and three drug violations — all misdemeanors, according to online court records.

Holc is not named in a Public Safety press release, nor is Paul Abel Jr., the officer involved in the altercation and arrest. A criminal complaint lists Abel as the arresting officer.

The case has been referred to the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations for review, Dan Gilman, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto, posted Tuesday evening to Twitter in response to questions from the public and confirmed with the Tribune-Review. Workers in the OMI investigate complaints into conduct violations by city employees, including police, firefighters, medics and building inspectors.

Police spokeswoman Cara Cruz declined to comment beyond the department’s news release on the arrest.

“Police have nothing to add regarding the OMI investigation,” Cruz said by email Tuesday night.

According to the release, a Pittsburgh police officer was working an approved off-duty detail for the city’s Special Events office around noon Sunday when he was approached by a man exiting the cordoned-off farmers market. The man said that the officer’s mask was disrespectful to the American flag.

Abel wrote in the complaint that Holc interrupted the conversation to tell him that his Thin Blue Line mask — a black and white American flag with one blue stripe — was disrespectful. Holc allegedly said he could prove the mask was disrespectful by showing Abel something on his cellphone. Abel wrote that he told Holc he wasn’t interested and asked him to step back. Then, Holc “became agitated … as he said, ‘No, I can say whatever the (expletive) I want and you can’t do anything about it,’ ” Abel wrote.

Authorities said that as this was going on, Holc was blocking the exit, causing a line to form and a crowd to gather. Holc continued to block the exit and insist he didn’t have to listen to Abel, according to the complaint.

Abel wrote that he repeatedly asked Holc for his identification in order to cite him. Holc refused.

“I determined at this time that Holc would have to be physically arrested because he was showing no signs of cooperation,” he wrote.

Authorities said that as Abel was trying to take Holc into custody, Holc knocked the officer’s body-worn camera from his chest. Holc continued to struggle against Abel and resist arrest until Abel threatened him with his Taser, according to the complaint.

Abel wrote in the complaint that the crowd that had formed “was hostile and telling me to release Holc.”

Brittani Murray, a member of the Black Activist/Organizing Collective, which calls for greater police accountability across the region, is among local activists deriding the arrest as unnecessary and unacceptable.

“The officer didn’t like his comment and asked him to leave a public event, open to the public,” said Murray. “You hear the officer mention that he doesn’t care that he’s being recorded, showing how emboldened they are to openly, publicly, accost and use their state-sanctioned authority to penalize folks for invoking their right to free speech.”

Multiple videos posted to Twitter taken by onlookers show the latter portion of the incident, including onlookers asking the officer why he was detaining the man and the man repeatedly asking whether he was being arrested and on what charges.

“I don’t care! You don’t listen. I told you to go away, you didn’t want to listen,” Abel tells the man at one point, after the officer’s body cam had fallen into the nearby street.

“You told me to go away for what reason?” Holc replies. “Did I commit a crime?”

Abel tells him he did not show him his ID when requested.

“ID for what reason, sir?” Holc asks as the officer cuffed him and ordered him to get on his knees on the sidewalk. “All I said was that it was disrespectful to have that sort of mask on.”

“And then I told you to walk away, didn’t I?” Abel says. “And then I asked you for your ID. … If I tell you to give me your ID, you give it to me.”

Abel then orders the man to the ground, saying he was under arrest for “failure to disperse.”

Murray took further issue with part of a video showing the officer yelling at passersby who asked what was happening.

“What country is this? Why are officers feelings taken into consideration and used to determine their use of force and arrest of constituents that haven’t committed a crime?” she said. “They are not people’s parents. They don’t get to determine folks passing moral fortitude. It is not their job to ‘check’ people or to teach people what they deem is or isn’t respectful. He stepped well outside his grounds for arrest and used his badge to brutalize a person for their free speech.”

Though its use dates to many decades ago, the “Thin Blue Line” flag has been at the center of several controversies in recent months at police, fire and other municipal agencies around the country. Some defend the symbol as a sign of police solidarity, respect and recognition of the sacrifices officers to protect society. Others criticize the image as divisive and promoting an “us vs. them” mentality, and point to its affiliation with the Blue Lives Matter movement countering Black Lives Matter efforts against police brutality. Some point to purported recent ties between the symbol and white supremacy groups.

A search of the man’s backpack to find his ID turned up marijuana, THC edibles and drug paraphernalia, and the man does not possess a medical marijuana card, according to Cruz.