CHICAGO (CN) - Elgin turns a blind eye to racism in its police department, where white officers support the Ku Klux Klan, call black children "chitterling" and gang members "hood niggers," a veteran police officer claims in court. Phillipp Brown sued the city of Elgin and its police Officers Sean Rafferty and James R. Barnes in Federal Court. Brown, who is African-American, is a 16-year veteran of the Elgin Police Department. Rafferty is his supervisor and Barnes is an internal affairs investigator, according to the complaint. "For over a decade, the City of Elgin, its City Council, Police Board, its police chiefs, deputy chiefs and EPD officers and other supervisors knew that certain officers, including, but not limited to, defendant Rafferty were creating an ongoing racially hostile work environment for African American officers of EPD, including plaintiff," Brown says in his complaint: "(The) creation of a racially hostile work environment included all too frequent positive references to the Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization dedicated to the murder and grave physical harm of African Americans in the United States, the use of offensive racist language toward and in the presence of African American EPD officers, including plaintiff, false accusations of wrongdoing against plaintiff and other African American officers on the basis of their race, denial of FMLA benefits to plaintiff on the basis of his race and finally a trumped-up cover-up when plaintiff made complaints about the hostile work environment in the EPD. What follows are some of the examples of the behavior that has created a racially hostile work environment that has been tolerated and acquiesced in by the City of Elgin. ... "On or about 2000, plaintiff and several other officers from EPD attended a football game in Indianapolis. While in that vicinity, defendant Rafferty, who served in the gang unit with plaintiff, had his picture taken with fellow police officer Tom Wolek in front of a Ku Klux Klan monument. Rafferty and Wolek both posed in the picture showing their hands in the sign of a 'K,' while stating, 'If you are looking for the Klan, we're right here.' "Upon returning to the EPD after that trip, the photo of defendant Rafferty and Wolek in front of the KKK monument was widely disseminated in and around the EPD. "On one occasion in or around the incident in which the KKK photograph was taken, while plaintiff was working the gang unit with defendant Rafferty, Rafferty stopped three Caucasian teenagers near a theatre on Randall Road in Elgin, and discovered that the teens were in possession of approximately one-half pound of cannabis. Rafferty, who was in charge of the investigation, dumped the cannabis down a nearby drain and released the teens without arrest. Later that same evening, Rafferty, in plaintiff's presence, stopped two African American teenagers near the Schoolhouse Apartments in Elgin and discovered that they had cannabis joints in their possession. Rafferty, who was also in charge of this investigation, arrested both African Americans." Brown adds, in the 17th paragraph of the complaint: "In or about 2000, African-American Elgin Police Officer Steve Jones wrote a memorandum to the Police Chief Miller complaining of race discrimination within the Elgin Police Department and claiming that the Department had a 'Klan-like' mentality. "Police Officer Jones was terminated from employment in response to the conduct described in paragraph 17." Brown says he asked to be transferred from the gang unit because he felt uncomfortable working with Rafferty, but Rafferty harassed him with baseless and racist allegations that led to an FBI investigation: "In or about 2002, after leaving the gang unit due to his discomfort in working with defendant Rafferty, plaintiff was assigned to be a 'school liaison' at Elgin High School. In approximately 2006, unbeknownst to Plaintiff, defendant Rafferty instigated an investigation that ultimately involved the FBI, in which he alleged or insinuated in a racially derogatory and false manner that plaintiff was feeding information to gangs at that school. Based upon Rafferty's allegations and the ensuing FBI investigation, plaintiff, from October, 2007 to January, 2009 was compelled to accept desk duty at EPD - a position that all officers consider to be a low level, degrading assignment." Brown says he was not charged with any wrongdoing. In 2009, after Rafferty was promoted to lieutenant, "someone with access to plaintiff's locker placed a photograph of defendant Rafferty's 'KKK' photo inside plaintiff's locker. Certainly, defendant Rafferty had access to that racist photograph at the time it was placed in Plaintiff's locker," the complaint states. In April 2010, Brown says: "the Elgin Police Department circulated a memorandum to its officers alerting the officers that certain individuals who belonged to a gang called 'Hood N*****s' could be detained without probable cause. In fact, no such gang 'Hood N*****s' existed at that time. Instead, the name of the gang was Gangster Disciples. The 'Hood N*****s' nickname for the gang was created as a pretext to enable officers to stop African Americans without probable cause, and also enabled Caucasian officers in the Elgin Police Department to freely use the term 'N*****s' in the presence of African-American police officers without recourse by the African-American police officers." (Asterisks in complaint.) This racist term came into use when Rafferty was in charge of the gang unit, Brown says. After Brown complained to Deputy Chief Robert Beeter about the racist conduct, the department told Brown to inform Barnes if he experienced any other incidents of racial discrimination, according to the complaint. Then, "On June 29, 2011, Caucasian Officer Mark Hornsby approached plaintiff and asked him how his 'chitterling,' referring to plaintiff's infant son, was," the complaint states. "Plaintiff reported this comment by Hornsby which plaintiff found to be racially insensitive to Barnes, as he had been instructed to do. Defendant Barnes said that he did not know what a chitterling was, and then checked the Urban Dictionary (eschewing Webster and conventional dictionaries) for the term 'chitterling.' The Urban Dictionary defines the term as follows: "'1. Chitterlings: Pig intestines. They smell like shit even after they are cleaned and cooked. They will make your house smell like shit, your hands and body smell like shit, and your breath smell like shit.' "After looking up the Urban Dictionary definition of 'chitterling,' Barnes stated to plaintiff, 'you guys (referring to African Americans) eat that stuff?' Plaintiff found Barnes' conduct towards him to be dismissive, and found Barnes' inquiry regarding 'you guys' to be independently racially offensive," Brown says. (Parentheses in complaint.) Brown claims the city took 5 months to investigate his complaints of racism, a delay which "had the intentional and foreseeable result of causing plaintiff extreme psychological duress. Specifically, plaintiff was working in a highly demanding and dangerous environment side-by-side with officers against whom plaintiff had made very specific allegations of racial discrimination," according to the complaint. Brown seeks an injunction forcing Elgin to provide racial sensitivity training to its police department, and punitive damages for civil rights violations against Rafferty and Barnes. He is represented by Laurie Burgess. Elgin, pop. 109,000, is a far west suburb of Chicago. It is 43 percent white, 7 percent black and 44 percent Hispanic, according to city-data.com. Its estimated 2009 median household income of $56,091 was 4 percent above the state median, according to city-data.
↧