University Police Officers Suffer Racism, Harassment
Eight campus police officers at the University of Washington in Seattle are suing their department for continual and overt acts of racism by both fellow officers and supervisors.
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All five Black rank-and-file officers in the University of Washington in Seattle police department filed multi-million-dollar damage claims this week, describing a culture of entrenched racism that has included racial slurs, vicious comments about Black people and open hostility directed at them and at members of the public, reports the New York Times. Specific incidents included one officer finding a banana placed in front of her locker, once with a note that referred to her as a “monkey,” another where a white supervisor hit him with a long, stick-like object and remarked, “You people should be used to being hit with these, and another being placed on leave for an internal investigation after he heard three white colleagues talking, with one referring to the officer in question with a racial slur, and saying that he “better not show his face around here.”
The five Black officers did not name the specific individuals who made the comments and are seeking $8 million in damages for workplace conduct that they said has made their jobs “unbearable.” They said that supervisors in the department were well aware of the conduct, and some of them engaged in it themselves.
