A civil rights complaint has been filed against the Eastpointe Police Department on behalf of a Muslim officer who said he was subjected to anti-Muslim harassment within the department, according to the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
CAIR said it filed the complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights after an officer reported that a fellow officer said “(expletive) all Muslims” in front of supervisors while on duty, and allegedly nobody addressed it properly until CAIR got involved.
“After I reported the discrimination, I began experiencing retaliation and hostility from coworkers and supervisors,” the unidentified officer wrote in the complaint. “Moreover, it was only after an anyonomous (sic) tip was reported to CAIR-MI by one of my coworkers and they reached out regarding this incident, was it taken seriously and brought forth for investigation.”
The officer was disciplined after CAIR got involved, according to the complaint.
The Eastpointe Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the officer’s report, he allegedly experienced retaliation, including false accusations, discriminatory comments, damage to his professional reputation and disparate disciplinary treatment, according to CAIR.
The officer wrote in his complaint that comments began circulating around the department that the officers didn’t trust him, “that I was providing ‘Islamic protection,’ and that I had made ‘terrorist threats.'”
A supervisor at Eastpointe also allegedly visited the officer’s wife’s business in uniform and “made disturbing and inappropriate comments, referenced the department’s distrust of the complainant, and engaged in intimidating conduct that extended the hostile environment beyond the workplace,” according to CAIR.
This supervisor was suspended for one day, but the officer wrote he believes he did not actually serve it, according to the complaint. The supervisor was promoted after the incident, according to the complaint, while the officer was found responsible for insubordination because he told the supervisor to leave his family alone.
“This complaint raises deeply troubling allegations of anti-Muslim bias, retaliation, and a failure of leadership within a law enforcement agency,” said Amy Doukoure, lead staff attorney for CAIR. “When law enforcement officers express overt religious animus, the concern is greater than a hostile work environment. Communities cannot trust officers who hold these views to fairly uphold the law or protect the safety of all people they are sworn to serve. No officer should face retaliation for reporting discrimination, and no police department should tolerate conduct that undermines public trust in equal protection under the law.”
kberg@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Eastpointe police accused of anti-Muslim harassment by officer
Reporting by Kara Berg, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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