The New York Times has a pretty devastating article about how white supremacy works, in some of its more institutional and “plausibly deniable” ways. Three black detectives have filed a complaint charging the NYPD’s Intelligence Division of racial discrimination.
The “rap unit,” as it was referred to internally, had a peripheral role in a division otherwise focused on recruiting Muslim informants and building terrorism cases. Detectives went undercover at hip-hop concerts, protected artists from scammers and stickup men and warned venues of potential feuds.
Inside the Intelligence Division, which was largely led by white commanders, the “rap unit” was known to stall careers: Black detectives there did not get promoted for years, no matter how sterling their recommendations, according to a complaint filed by three black detectives with a federal labor agency.
According to the complaint, the only detective to get promoted out of the “rap unit” the past few years was one of the few white detectives working in the unit. Must be a coincidence? No, this has been an issue in the New York Police Department for quite a long time and has been the subject of many complaints and lawsuits over the years. For example in the beginning of 2012, when the NY Civil Liberties Union filed a report of complaints for the very same thing.
The New York Civil Liberties Union filed the report last month on behalf of complainants, who accuse the Intelligence Division of employing a "secretive and standardless promotions policy" that promotes white officers ahead of better-qualified African-American officers. They said there is a "secret list" of officers to be promoted, most of them white. [...]
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne denied the allegations, telling CNN affiliate NY1, "There's no 'secret' list. There's a formal review process that measures job performance, years in rank, etc. in which minorities department-wide have fared better than at any other time, in recognition of their meritorious performance."
The NYCLU said African-Americans are underrepresented in the Intelligence Division. They comprise 18% of all NYPD officers, but 6% of Intelligence Division personnel, according to the complaint. Additionally, the complainants allege that no African-American holds a rank above sergeant, while most serve as third grade detectives, just one rank above regular police officers.
According to the New York Times, it turns out that a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that while there may not be some “secret list,” it sure feels and seems like there is, as these black detectives were definitely discriminated against.
The commission, after analyzing roughly 75 detectives promoted from third grade to second grade in the Intelligence Division over a seven-year period, found that black detectives on average served at the lower rung for two years longer than white detectives. It said the gap was “considerably broader” than the Police Department acknowledged and could not be explained by individual circumstances.
The police department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, Lawrence Byrne, disputed that analysis. “The E.E.O.C. is a largely incompetent agency,” he said. “The E.E.O.C. had a political agenda here and they ignored the objective evidence.”
Considering who is running the federal government these days, you can only imagine that people like Attorney General Jeff Sessions are trying to ensure that no more serious reviews of white supremacist structures will be taking place. While serious people work hard and get passed over for promotion, being white and accepting of the “status quo*” is a quick way to the top of our executive branch of government.
*See white supremacy