‘Go Back to Where You Came from’: Black Chicago Cop Says Fellow Officers Assailed Him with Racial Slurs for Defending Pregnant Woman from Police Abuse
In the eyes of his fellow cops, Chicago police officer Anthony Banks did the unthinkable by intervening on behalf of a pregnant woman who was being assaulted and harassed by another cop.
That same cop and other cops then retaliated against the Black police officer back at the station, surrounding him and preventing him from walking away while calling him racial slurs, telling him to go back to where he came from, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court against those cops and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
When Banks reported the incident to a commanding officer, the Lieutenant dismissed his concerns, telling Banks that the other cops were angry at him because he intervened on behalf of the pregnant woman.
The lieutenant ordered Banks to leave his shift early, but then called him as he was driving home to return to the station to fill out a form documenting the alleged intimidation.
But that document was leaked online by an unknown Chicago police officer, the claim states.
And the intimidation continued the following day after one of the cops emailed him a racist image on his department-issued phone, Banks claims.
“The image depicted a caricature of an African-American man with a gun in his mouth, reading: ‘When is a n*gger the most frustrated? When he tries to blow his own brains out,” the claim states.
Chicago attorney Blake Wolfe Horwitz described the image to local media as something from Mississippi during the 1950s, which is when and where 14-year-old Emmett Till was visiting from Chicago when a white mob lynched him after a white woman accused him of whistling at her.
“The image is the most racially perverse photograph of how an African American can kill himself,” Horwitz told ABC 7. “It is a 1950s Mississippi-type of representation.”
Listed as defendants in the lawsuit along with the city of Chicago are “Lieutenant Naro” and two cops with the surnames Venegas and Walter, as well as several unnamed officers, including a sergeant.
However, Naro is actually Lt. Nari Haro, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The lawsuit accuses the cops of violating Banks’ Fourth Amendment rights by surrounding him, preventing him from walking away, as well as racial discrimination and false imprisonment.
‘They All Surrounded My Client’
The incident took place on March 17 in Chicago police’s District 11, the same district where a group of cops killed a 26-year-old Black man named Dexter Reed in the Humboldt Park neighborhood by shooting 96 rounds in 41 seconds at him.
The lawsuit states that Banks observed a heated exchange between a pregnant woman and a cop whose name remains unknown.
“Plaintiff observed the defendant unknown officer bump into the woman which escalated the confrontation,” the claim states.
“Plaintiff attempted to de-escalate the situation by stepping between the defendant unknown officer and the pregnant woman and asking the defendant unknown officer to calm down.”
Attorney Horwitz told ABC 7 that Banks told the other cop, “Why don’t you distance yourself and give her some room?”
And that did not go well with the other cop who confronted Banks later that day at the police station, accusing him of “interfering with his team.”
Several more cops then surrounded Banks, letting him know he was not free to leave.
“Go back to where you came from,” one cop said.
Another cop told him to “go back to the 3rd District,” which the lawsuit describes as “having predominantly African-American officers.”
“Nah, N*gga,” another cop mumbled under his breath.
Two police sergeants who witnessed the intimidation then intervened, telling the cops to stop intimidating him, Banks reports.
“They encircled him in such a fashion that he did not feel free to leave,” Horwitz told ABC 7.
“They all surrounded my client and start making racial comments, using [a racial slur] and also telling him to go back from where he came from, which has a double meaning.”
Banks then reported the incident to Lt. Haro, who dismissed his concerns, sending him home early.
He then took a medical leave of absence due to “emotional distress, trauma, and fear for his safety,” the claim states.
Banks returned to work on July 1 but was transferred to the police department’s 6th District, ABC 7 reported.
The 6th District patrols Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, which is more than ten miles from the Humboldt Park neighborhood, where police from the 11th District patrol.
The Chicago Police Department has had a long history of racism towards citizens and its own officers. And last week, Atlanta Black Star reported on a Black off-duty Chicago cop who was arrested in Arizona for chirping his tires, who is also suing.
“My client has chosen to ruffle feathers and chosen to come out and tell what happened because it’s important,” Horwitz told ABC 7.