NYPD being sued over hijab attack on officer

She says she was harassed, bullied, sidelined and physically attacked by other members of the city police force

NEW YORK // The first officer to wear a hijab in the New York police department said she suffered years of bullying that culminated in a physical attack in which colleagues tried to rip the covering from her head.

Danielle Alamrani, 38, claims her career suffered because she was taken off patrol work and subjected to years of verbal abuse. She is suing the city police department for allowing religious discrimination in the workplace.

“On a daily basis she would be told that she should not be a police officer, that she should not be allowed to wear the hijab, that nobody wanted to work with her, that she was a disgrace to the NYPD and that nobody liked her, along with other deriding comments,” according to the lawsuit, filed in court earlier this month.

She is not the first Muslim officer to take action against the department but it comes at an embarrassing time for the NYPD, which won praise only weeks ago for announcing a number of religious uniform exemptions.

But that came after a Muslim officer launched a class- action suit. Muslim and Sikh policemen are now allowed to grow beards that extend up to half an inch from the face.

The new lawsuit also comes after a report of a surge in hate crimes during last year’s election campaign. Some Muslim women even stopped wearing headscarves to avoid unwanted attention. “Something should be done to prevent it happening again and to let other officers know that you can’t treat a fellow officer this way,” said Ms Alamrani’s lawyer, Jesse Rose.

“You do expect police officers to have thicker skin and be able to deal with other people but you don’t expect them to have to do that with colleagues.”

Ms Alamrani joined the police force in 2006 and converted to Islam a year later after she married a Muslim. The trouble began in 2008, when she was given permission to wear a hijab to work, she said.

A union supervisor told her that senior officers were unhappy with her decision, she claimed, and that she was moved to desk shifts or guarding prisoners, duties that limit opportunities for overtime. She was frequently referred to as terrorist or Taliban, she said.

On one occasion, she said, a sergeant ordered her not to “detonate on patrol”. Ms Alamrani, whose lawyer believes she was the first NYPD officer to wear a hijab on duty, filed a complaint in 2012, but said the harassment continued. Things deteriorated further by the end of the year when two officers attacked her and tried to rip the hijab from her head, the complaint states.

One of the alleged attackers was the precinct’s equal employment opportunity liaison officer, according to the court documents.

On another occasion, a colleague allegedly took a photograph of Ms Alamrani at a gun range – part of her normal duties and training – and posted it on Facebook.

The post attracted threats of violence and derogatory comments from other colleagues, describing her as a “disgrace” and a “moving target”, she said. The harassment finally stopped when she was moved to another precinct, she said.

She is claiming unspecified damages for lost earnings and for mental, emotional and physical distress. About 1,500 Muslims serve in the NYPD, of whom 900 are uniformed officers, in a force of 34,500, according to the Muslim Officers Society. Ms Alamrani is one of two women to wear a hijab while on duty.

In December, the force and Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, spoke out in support of female officer Aml Elsokary who was abused and labelled as being a member of ISIL by a man who threatened to slit her throat.

Ms Elsokary was off duty at the time. “I was sick to my stomach when I heard one of our officers was subjected to threats and taunting simply because of her faith,” Mr de Blasio said.

Officials are calling on the city’s district attorney to rule out plea bargains in the case of hate crimes as part of a tougher stance against racist or religiously motivated attacks.