New York Daily News reports Dana Harge, a black officer within the New York Police Department, (NYPD) has filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and with the NYPD’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. Harge is attempting to expose the racism within the NYPD Highway Division, alleging that ‘racism is routine’.
Harge says that in the elite unite, there was a quota to issue 70 summonses per month. Not making your quota as an officer can have some huge ramifications. The officer stated in his complaint, ‘Any officer not making his quota can be given inconvenient tours of duty, a bad car to work with and even an involuntary transfer out of Highway, something which bodes badly for the officer’s career.’
Dana Harge says actions were even taken against him were racially motivated to prevent him from making his quota and ‘would have resulted in the desired end of an involuntary transfer.’ Harge has worked Highway Unit No.3 in Queens since 2008. He personally described his work as being ‘stellar’ as he was honored in 2013 by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers for making the most drunk driving arrests of any NYPD officer for that year. This resulted in Harge being recommended for a promotion to detective.
Yet a person in a higher position seemed to have ended that as that paperwork has since vanished, Harge claims there is log number of his recommendation in his filed complaint. Among this alleged cohesion to prevent him from moving up in rank, Dana noted, ‘In May of 2015 I came in with 82 summonses, which is well above the quota of 70 per month…After that I was not allowed to use an unmarked (car) to get me to stop being successful and to get me transferred out of highway.’
As an overall unit Harge uses some statistics that are alarming. The highway unit in command is almost entirely all white. That in Harge’s No. 3 unit there are only two black officers and the citywide Highway Unit is just 4% black. More allegations he claims coming from white superiors includes; having his job evaluation downgraded from a 4.5 to a 3.5, not allowed to patrol a predominantly black population post in south Queens, and more notably keeping the black officers away from media appearances.
The two incidents in the complaint cite that they tried to keep black faces off camera include a July 10, U.S. Women’s Soccer Team parade in lower Manhattan. Harge was the chosen to be the lead driver by his sergeant but a captain complained to his sergeant calling Harge a ‘cancer’ and a ‘boob.’ He also says a black highway sergeant was sent to the firing range on the day that the local TV station was scheduled to interview him, thus having his interview spot replaced with a white officer.
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