Several Maryland-National Capital Park Police officers are under fire for making disparaging remarks about people of color in a group text meant to discuss work assignments. According to a lawsuit, some of the comments were aimed at Black Lives Matter protestors, including that they hope they died.
On Monday, Mark Miles filed the lawsuit, claiming that his supervisor and other officers “mocked, demeaned, ostracized and humiliated” him for being Black. He is alleging harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, according to CNN.
Miles joined the park police in 2019 and began working under Stephanie Harvey in 2020. On August 4 of that year, Harvey referred to Miles as “colored.” She also mentioned the comment was a joke, alluding to knowing it was offensive.
“Joke, don’t turn these texts over to [Internal Affairs] and get me fired for hate speech!” she wrote. Miles reported the messages that same month.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Harvey sent text messages about the Black Lives Matter protesters. In one statement, she said it’s “time to start killing,” and “Well they got the Army out there sooooo … hopefully they will get to kill some people.” At one point, Harvey wrote “Kill em all” when referring to the protesters.
The lawsuit provided more than a dozen text messages as examples of hateful comments. No one was safe from nasty remarks. The texts were aimed at Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Jewish people. In addition, anti-LGBTQ messages were sent in the chat.
The Maryland-National Capital Park Police said in a statement that it launched an investigation when the messages were first reported. Several of the officers were suspended or referred for termination. The agency did not comment further.
In November, Miles was forced to transfer to a “less desirable” night shift. According to the lawsuit, he was pressured to leave the unit after making several complaints between August of 2020 and March of 2021.
The lawsuit seeks economic and compensatory damages; for a judge to order park police to refrain from retaliating against him, an independent monitor is appointed to ensure compliance with the court’s decision and punitive damages against Harvey. It also asks for the termination of her employment.
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