{"id":179936,"date":"2025-08-27T14:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179936\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T14:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:33:09","slug":"chicago-police-officer-files-lawsuit-alleging-racist-harassment-by-colleagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/179936\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago police officer files lawsuit alleging racist harassment by colleagues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\"><strong>CHICAGO<\/strong> &#8211; A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/organization\/cpd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago police officer<\/a> has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and several colleagues, alleging he was racially harassed and retaliated against after intervening to de-escalate an incident involving a pregnant woman.<\/p>\n<p>   Chicago police lawsuit <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">According to the filing, the incident happened March 17, when Banks stepped in as officers confronted and bumped into a pregnant woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">Banks said he attempted to de-escalate the situation, but later that day, he was surrounded inside a police station by several fellow officers. The lawsuit claims those officers shouted racial slurs at him and told him to &#8220;go back where you came from.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">Banks, who is Black, said the encounter escalated to the point that he was blocked from leaving the room, effectively being held against his will.<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">The complaint alleged that the next day, Banks received a racist and threatening image on his department-issued phone. The image included a racist caricature of a Black man with a gun in his mouth.<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">Banks accused the officers and supervisors of creating a hostile work environment, violating his constitutional rights and leaking an internal police statement he was ordered to write.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">The lawsuit named the City of Chicago, multiple officers, a sergeant and a lieutenant as defendants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;Toxic culture&#8221; <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">Banks\u2019 attorney, Blake Horwitz, said the case shows &#8220;the toxic culture inside the Chicago Police Department\u2014where an officer who does the right thing becomes the target of racial hostility by his own colleagues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-7f0a623e=\"\">The lawsuit seeks damages for lost wages, emotional distress and attorney\u2019s fees. It also calls for reforms within CPD to prevent what it describes as &#8220;a culture of racism and retaliation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> The information in this report came from The Blake Horwitz Law Firm, Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/organization\/cpd\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago Police Department<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/us\/il\/cook-county\/chicago\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chicago<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox32chicago.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-7f0a623e=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO &#8211; A Chicago police officer has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and several&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,12634,6082,5386,1818,50,12632,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-179936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-cpd","11":"tag-crime-publicsafety","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-organization","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115101224589334085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}