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Black officer was a rising star. Department's 'Jim Crow culture' destroyed his career, lawsuit says.
National
A Black officer was a rising star. The department’s ‘Jim Crow culture’ destroyed his career, lawsuit says.
By Timothy Bella
Today at 12:03 p.m. EDT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Not even two minutes go by after walking through the front door of a busy hotel before someone Brandon Hanks previously pulled over comes by for a handshake. ... A sleepy Tuesday morning in central New York has a bit of buzz thanks to the 28-year-old Black man who has become arguably the most well-known police officer in Syracuse. A hotel employee tells Hanks that he remembers the officer pulling him over for “an active warrant for something stupid” and that he’s doing better now, before directing his attention to Hanks’s white Maserati. “I’ve never seen a police officer with a car like that!” the man exclaims.
Hanks found viral fame in 2019 when his one-on-one basketball games with young people made him a rising star in the community and earned him an honor from the city. The exchange with the hotel employee summed up what the Syracuse native has aimed to do as one of the few Black officers in his nearly five years with the police department: Be yourself and show young Black people what success can look and sound like.
“That’s why I act the way I act and talk the way I talk, because people from my community that do not have anything can relate to that,” Hanks said. “It motivates other people behind me to want to be successful the right way.”
But when Hanks was up for a coveted job this year with the department’s gang violence task force, he allegedly was denied the position after some of his White colleagues accused him of being a “gang member” and “narcotics trafficker” who has “known associations with gang members and convicted criminals,” according to a new federal lawsuit. Hanks’s colleagues also did not like that he listened to rap music, using the profanity in the songs and a tattoo of a 2Pac track he has on his left arm, “Only God Can Judge Me,” as a mark against him.
{snip}
By Timothy Bella
Timothy Bella is a staff writer and editor for the General Assignment team, focusing on national news. His work has appeared in outlets such as Esquire, the Atlantic, New York magazine and the Undefeated. Twitter https://twitter.com/TimBella
A Black officer was a rising star. The department’s ‘Jim Crow culture’ destroyed his career, lawsuit says.
By Timothy Bella
Today at 12:03 p.m. EDT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Not even two minutes go by after walking through the front door of a busy hotel before someone Brandon Hanks previously pulled over comes by for a handshake. ... A sleepy Tuesday morning in central New York has a bit of buzz thanks to the 28-year-old Black man who has become arguably the most well-known police officer in Syracuse. A hotel employee tells Hanks that he remembers the officer pulling him over for “an active warrant for something stupid” and that he’s doing better now, before directing his attention to Hanks’s white Maserati. “I’ve never seen a police officer with a car like that!” the man exclaims.
Hanks found viral fame in 2019 when his one-on-one basketball games with young people made him a rising star in the community and earned him an honor from the city. The exchange with the hotel employee summed up what the Syracuse native has aimed to do as one of the few Black officers in his nearly five years with the police department: Be yourself and show young Black people what success can look and sound like.
“That’s why I act the way I act and talk the way I talk, because people from my community that do not have anything can relate to that,” Hanks said. “It motivates other people behind me to want to be successful the right way.”
But when Hanks was up for a coveted job this year with the department’s gang violence task force, he allegedly was denied the position after some of his White colleagues accused him of being a “gang member” and “narcotics trafficker” who has “known associations with gang members and convicted criminals,” according to a new federal lawsuit. Hanks’s colleagues also did not like that he listened to rap music, using the profanity in the songs and a tattoo of a 2Pac track he has on his left arm, “Only God Can Judge Me,” as a mark against him.
{snip}
By Timothy Bella
Timothy Bella is a staff writer and editor for the General Assignment team, focusing on national news. His work has appeared in outlets such as Esquire, the Atlantic, New York magazine and the Undefeated. Twitter https://twitter.com/TimBella