On Friday, 12-4-15, Brookline, MA Police Officer Prentice Pilot, who is African American, rolled down the window of his marked police cruiser to speak to a BPD sergeant who is white and working a detail. The sergeant told Officer Pilot to "drive up on the curb, get out, and give me some nigger jumping jacks, and I will put a good word in for you.” Knowing that he was Officer Pilot’s superior, the sergeant’s utterance to Officer Pilot was intended to put Officer Pilot in his subservient place.

 After Officer Pilot had reported this incident to Chief Daniel O’Leary, Pilot was placed on “special assignment” and a preliminary internal investigation was ordered. However, on 12-16-15, hours before Officer Pilot was going public with his complaint at a meeting of the Brookline Commission for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations (https://twitter.com/BrooksAmes1/status/677713703853285377), Chief O’Leary notified Pilot was to resume back to full duty even when the preliminary investigation was “inconclusive” and despite Pilot’s concerns regarding his personal safety on the job.  At this December 2015 meeting of the Commission for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Relations, and in the presence of his superiors including a Brookline Selectman/police commissioner) and a Deputy Superintendent, Officer Pilot reiterated the fact that he felt unsafe to work within the BPD where there are command staff members that espouses such racist attitudes towards black officers whom are under their command and supervision.

 Racism has been a continuing problem within the BPD. For instance, in December of 2014, three black officers including Officer Pilot, Officer Estifanos Zerai-Misgun, and a third officer met with Chief O’Leary regarding the ongoing racist and hostile environment within the BPD.  Officer Zerai-Misgun informed the chief of several racist incidents that he experienced and perpetrated by fellow officers and superiors (some examples cited below):

 *On 6-11-14 at around 12:30am, Officer Zerai-Misgun was patrolling in an unmarked car/plain-clothes Anti-Crime Unit and came to a stop when he noticed a command officer walking past the car.  Officer Zerai-Misgun rolled his window down and said, “how are you?”  The command officer replied, “What the f**k? Who would put a black man behind one of these?”

 *During the summer of 2014, Officer Zerai-Misgun was assigned to the Anti-Crime Unit and was in plain clothes for that purpose. Multiple fellow officers would refer to him in a derogatory manner as a “field interview” (aka, suspect) or would state that the residents of the town would call the police because he was sighted as suspiciously lingering around town.  Another example was on 12-22-14 at 12:30pm when he came into the police station dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt to pick up mail. Near his mailbox was a fellow white officer who looked over at him and stated to another officer, “Here’s an ‘FI’ (field Interview) for you.”

 *On 12-19-14 at 11:30pm while walking from the parking lot into the station to report to roll call, Officer Zerai-Misgun saw a fellow white officer driving with another officer as passenger. This officer said to Zerai-Misgun, “I almost ran you over, I can’t see you out here in the dark unless your eyes are open.”

 There were other incidents of racism reported to the chief during this meeting of December 2014, all of this was reported to the chief under the assumption that these complaints would be kept confidential and addressed accordingly.  However, information relating to his meeting was subsequently divulged by command staff to the rest of the department – even naming the specific officers that had filed the complaint.

 This most recent incident in December of 2015 demonstrates that the chief had ample time (over one year) and opportunity to address and has failed to adequately deal with the racial climate problem. If members of his own command staff are continuing to use racist words against fellow officers of color, and management tolerates such incidents by inaction, the tone that is established in the BPD is that racist attitudes by white officers are acceptable and that minority officers have to accept this as a condition of their employment? 

Currently, the chief has ordered both of these officers to return to regular duty. But these officers do not feel safe to go back on the job so they are not working either via a combination of sick leave or just unpaid leave. These two officers have attempted to deal with the problem internally within the department but there have been no changes and racist incidents persist. They have no alternative but to seek external avenues of legal redress. Their jobs and professions are at stake. Black police officers, as first responders, have enough stress on the job – they should not have to endure racist treatment from within their own department. 

WHAT DO WE WANT?

1. We want the Board of Selectmen (as police commissioners), pending the completed investigations, to give these two black officers "paid administrative leave".  [NOTE: earlier in 2015 two Brookline firefighters that initiated a physical altercation at a taqueria were on paid administrative leave]

2. We want our African American police officers and other officers of color to perform their job and be respected by fellow police officers

3. We want meaningful repercussion and disciplinary actions taken against officers using racial slurs or go about creating a hateful or discriminatory racial climate, not more studies and private internal investigations and consultants

4. We support the January 2016 statement (see below) of the Commission for Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Relations, and urge the Board of Selectmen to work towards the eradication of systemic racism within the Town of Brookline: “The Board of Selectmen as an institution of town government has allowed a culture of institutional racism to exist through its past hiring practices. In the past five years the town has allowed a firefighter, who, without dispute used the 'N word,' be promoted to a supervisory position. And the culture that such actions foster has led to situations [that have] brought us here today. The commission… calls upon you, as elected leaders of this town to exercise your responsibilities and duties…to stamp out this culture.”

 For more information, articles and videos see: https://sites.google.com/site/pilotzeraimisgun/home