By Grand Rapids Anonymous
Friday, May 5, 2017 at 6:17:00 P.M. EDT
Here's the story.
HASTINGS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Hastings police sergeant has filed a lawsuit against his chief, two other officers and the Hastings city manager for what he claims are civil rights violations.
Sgt. Cleon Brown, who remains on the force, claims he’s been harassed since he revealed he’s 18 percent black. It all began when an ancestry research site answered a lingering question Brown had about his lineage.
“Cleon, when he found out he was 18 percent African-American, was very proud of it,” said Brown’s Detroit-area attorney, Karie Boylan.
But the lawsuit contends not everyone at the Hastings Police Department shared in Brown’s pride, and it started in the office one day last fall.
Boylan claims Chief Jeff Pratt spotted Brown.
“He saw Cleon standing there and said, ‘Hey Kunta,’ as in Kunta Kinte,” Boylan said. “Cleon’s response, incredulously, was, ‘I can’t believe you just called me that.’”
Additional details in the lawsuit filed by Brown – a 19-year veteran of the force – in early April indicate things went downhill for him from there.
Claims of fist pumps and whispers of Black Lives Matter from fellow officers as they passed Brown in the hallway are on the list of accusations.
The most public evidence appeared on a Christmas tree in the lobby of the police department, where decorations included Santa figurines with the names of each officer. Brown’s Santa was black with 18 percent written on the beard.
“These are law enforcement officers. These are people who are supposed to understand cultural sensitivities,” Boylan said.
[N.S.: Actually, no. LEOs are supposed to understand and enforce the law. If anything, working in such an environment requires and has always fostered, a ribald sense of humor, as a way of maintaining esprit de corps. Demands for so-called cultural sensitivity have always been used to destroy esprit de corps.]
The lawsuit names the city, Chief Pratt, Deputy Chief Dale Boulter, Sgt. Kris Miller and Hastings City Manager Jeff Mansfield as defendants. Mansfield says the city is aware of the lawsuit but declined comment.
Boylan said the defendants created a hostile work environment and that Brown has been ostracized and basically frozen out, and believes it’s created dangerous conditions.
“I don’t see that any officer that has been retaliating against him is going to come to Cleon’s aid,” Boylan said.
So if proven true, what should the price tag be for the alleged misconduct?
Boylan said they want the city to provide better racial sensitivity training for officers, but that the lawsuit can only award cash.
In this case, the figure on the lawsuit is in excess of $500,000.
GRA: The guy looks white. The guys were probably kidding with him like they do in sports team locker rooms. I'll keep the story updated, if a trial ever takes place.
“Cleon, when he found out he was 18 percent African-American, was very proud of it,”
ReplyDeleteALL blacks are all the time proud of being black. They ALL are.
With a name like Cleon you would have thought the man would reasonably assume he was a negro.
jerry pdx
ReplyDeleteNothing more annoying than whites who discover they have "black" in them, suddenly they aren't "white" anymore and proud of it. I suspect this Cleon Brown was obnoxiously bragging about his "negro heritage". The suggestion with these people is "I have something you don't have, I'm better than you"! If he just mentioned it and never made a deal out of it then it likely would never have been referenced again. I looked up this guys picture, he doesn't even look Mediterranean or Spanish or something, he looks pasty North European white. It's particularly annoying when somebody whiter than white suddenly start pretending to be carrying the weight of the "black man's" burden on his shoulders because they find out they had a great great ancestor that was black.
jerry pdx
ReplyDeleteYet another non white serial killer has been arrested. Aaron Saucedo, the Phoenix shooter who has 9 known victims has been arrested. This case got quite a bit of attention when the killings were going on but the news about his arrest seems a bit muted, not unexpected since the media doesn't like it when serial and mass killers don't fit the false "white males only" narrative. http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-phoenix-serial-killer-20170509-story.html
I remember the descriptions of this guy were a "white or light skinned hispanic male" but when I look at his picture I don't see how anybody could mistake this guy for anything other than a Meso American latino/hispanic, even a quick glance reveals that. Just shows how the power of the media convinces people to see the politically correct stereotype it wants them to see.
I need to update the serial killer list, there have been a number arrested since the last time and more of them have been non white than white. It has been kind of a banner two years for white serial killers. Two white men (only 3 arrested in the previous 10 yrs.), three black men and now one hispanic. That's all off the top of my head since I don't have my research materials right here, so don't quote me but it's about right. I think it's indeterminate at this point that one of the black ones is a true serial killer but I believe they are still working on his case so we'll see what comes out about him.