Posted on 07/28/2008 9:43:23 AM PDT by Stoat
Sunday, July 27th 2008, 11:11 PM
Pace for NewsCops Shelron Smikle (l.), 28, and Blanch O’Neal, 38, pictured here at their lawyer’s office, plan to sue NYPD.
Cairo for NewsThe cops say when Assistant Chief Gerald Nelson (above) found out they had lodged a complaint about a black sergeant’s N-word-laced rant, Nelson repeated the N-word.
Two black cops who reported a boss for using a racial slur say they were viciously chewed out by an African-American chief in the NYPD and are now planning a lawsuit.
Assistant Chief Gerald Nelson went ballistic after Officer Shelron Smikle made a June 10 report to the Internal Affairs Bureau charging that a black sergeant at the 83rd Precinct dropped the N-bomb on him.
Two days later, Nelson, the commander of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, ordered Smikle, 28, and his partner, Blanch O'Neal, 38, to his office, they told the Daily News in an interview.
"'We have friends in IAB, and you're full of s--t!'" Nelson screamed, according to Smikle and O'Neal. "So what, he [the sergeant] called you a n----r? If you can't handle it, resign!'"
Smikle, who was born on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, said he also complained that the sergeant told him "to go back to [his] country" and referred to him as a "dollar van driver."
"So what, he said that to you?" Nelson allegedly responded.
"'Get the f--k out of my office! It doesn't matter if this conversation is being recorded. I'm not saying anything wrong.'"
The cops said they were shocked by Nelson's alleged racial insensitivity in repeating the slur.
"It's not acceptable for a chief in charge ... to say that," Smikle said. "It's a slap in the face."
The two cops have hired lawyer Eric Sanders of the firm Jeffrey Goldberg in Lake Success, L.I., to file a federal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a precursor to filing a lawsuit.
"Chief Nelson is African-American, and we would expect as a police executive he would have responded differently," Sanders said.
"If he feels this way, what does it say about how they treat the public in Brooklyn North?"
O'Neal and Smikle say the problem started when they were dumped on foot patrol on a 97-degree day because the keys to their radio car were missing, which they say was due to a prank.
A black sergeant lit into Smikle for being in the stationhouse instead of being out in the streets and allegedly spewed racial epithets that were overheard by O'Neal.
Later that day, the cops fell sick from heat exhaustion, then called the IAB and the office of equal employment opportunity to lodge complaints about the sergeant.
Nelson acknowledged that he reamed the cops for going to the IAB, told them their allegations were false and threw them out of his office.
He adamantly denies he used the N-word, however.
"I never use that language," Nelson said. "That is an absolute lie. You guys print whatever you like, but if you print that, you're printing a lie."
Nelson also warned that the cops' complaints would get them in more trouble.
"Now I have to open an investigation. If I see this in the paper, I will discipline them again. I don't need this in my career," he told The News. "But it comes with the territory."
Nelson's mouth has landed him in hot water before.
When he was in charge of the school-safety division in 2005, he allegedly referred to angry parents as "b-----s" at a meeting attended by 850 school-safety agents. The agents' union received dozens of complaints, but Nelson denied making the statements.
Actually, the male cop doesn’t look overweight. The female cop, OTOH, certainly is.
The word, of course, is "Naggers". People who annoy you. . .
i can see Richard Pryor making a half hour of funny stuff out of this.
WTF is so unbelievable about these two. IMHO they dump the ‘island monkeys’ in here in the first place to color the lingo, add some new variety to the restaurant fare, and highlight a new timbre to the DAMNED WHINING. GOOD POINT; WHY DON’T THEY GO BACK WHERE THEY CAME FROM ???
“This 100% about money, nothing else”
Got that right! There’s nothing like a “Greenback Poultice” to make a litigant feel better and go away!!
Are you implying that all cultures are not equal?
How dare you!
Will the Assistant Chief and the Sergeant lose their jobs?
How dare you!
Oh, I have no doubt! After all, the law is applied equally to all regardless of ethnicity, isn't it?
"snicker"
So this is two black cops suing the NYPD for the n-word laden racist rants of a black superior?
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS
That was SUCH a funny episode....and, if I recall correctly, one of the rare recent ones that didn’t fixate in large measure upon homosexuality or some aspect thereof.
Nipper? What's so bad about that?
Nipper? What's so bad about that?
LMAO
Hard to tell, unless they were aware that a "nipper" is a ladies' undergarment designed to flatten out unsightly bulges much like a girdle....a popular item after childbirth as well.
Somehow, I don't get the impression that this was the matter at hand......
or, perhaps a type of end-clipper pliers....
It seems that they got into a terrible fuss over being called a ladies' undergarment, a dog used in advertising by a Victrola maker or a type of hand tool....
The expressions on the plaintiffs’ faces look contrived.
Their lawyer most likely told them to adopt their best "we been wronged and the only thing that will fix it is truckloads o' money" look :-)
Michelle Obama seems to perpetually have that expression. ;-)
Michelle Obama seems to perpetually have that expression. ;-)
Indeed she does!
I suppose that they were advised to "tone it down a bit" from what their natural, unrestrained demeanor would be.....
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