NYPD Sergeant Allegedly Derides Dominican Cops During Roll Call
The New York Daily News is reporting that black NYPD Sergeant, Tameika Goode, is under fire for allegedly ridiculing her Dominican police officers as “stupid and crazy.”
The derogatory comments were allegedly made Sunday, during the morning roll call at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx.
According to a Dominican officer who was at the Sunday roll call, Goode started “asking the officers where they were from. Whoever said they were Dominican she would say, ‘Well I can tell.’ Then [when] one officer said, ‘I was born and raised in the D.R.,’ she [turned] around and [said], ‘What are you doing here? Why don’t you go back?’” Police sources allege that Goode was upset about a minor car accident involving a man she presumed was Dominican.
After hearing about the incident, Anthony Miranda, a retired lieutenant and head of the National Latino Officers Association, complained to Bronx commanders. A police source states that everyone, including officers who were not Dominican, were shocked that those comments were made during roll call. According to NYPD spokesman, Deputy Chief Edward Mullen, the department’s office of Equal Employment Opportunity has launched an investigation.
The New York Daily News also reports that two officers said Goode had never before displayed any animus to Dominicans, but they and another source said she has in the past clashed with her immediate supervisors and is difficult to work with. When the New York Daily News reached out to Goode, she could not be immediately reached for comment.
At a time when police and community relations in this country are tense due to allegations against the police of explicit and implicit anti-Black racism, this story is just disheartening. The Bronx has the largest population of Dominicans in this country. It is unacceptable for any black person to discriminate or make derogatory comments against any other racial or cultural group, especially a group that has had parallel experiences of racial and cultural discrimination.
If these allegations are indeed true, Sergeant Goode should be held accountable for her verbally abusive and discriminatory comments.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below.
Photo credit: freeimages.com