Last week, WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, released secretly recorded audio files that captured a New Jersey sheriff, Michael Saudino, making biased comments about African-Americans, a homophobic remark about New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and an anti-Sikh statement about New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
After apologizing and briefly withstanding calls for his resignation from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, from the local congressman and from Grewal, Saudino stepped down.
In condemning Saudino’s remarks, which implied Grewal got his job only because he was a Sikh, Grewal said, “I have thick skin and I’ve been called far worse.”
Grewal is not exaggerating. Since January, when he became the first Sikh attorney general in American history, death threats have become a “fact of life,” he has said. Just six weeks ago, two long-tenured local radio hosts found themselves in a national firestorm after making racist remarks about the attorney general’s Sikh identity.
It’s bad enough that he has had to develop “thick skin” for racism over the years, especially because such attacks produce an unwanted distraction for someone who has critical work to do. It’s even worse when racist comments come from officials such as Saudino who are elected to represent the will of the people.
Also read: My problem with black identity
Bigotry has no place in law enforcement. Certainly racism has no place among its top officials, particularly when our society is reckoning with racist policing, mass incarceration, forced family separations and police brutality.
Scholars such as Michelle Alexander have recently shed light on the historical intertwining of anti-black racism and law enforcement practices. In a moment when we have more clarity than ever about the types of biases that inform American policing, we must be incredibly sensitive to how prejudice colors our actions – and we have to be vigilant about rooting such bigotry out of our systems.
If we know that an officer is a racist , we must demand that the officer be held accountable for his or her behavior. When the elected leader of an entire law enforcement agency is confirmed to be racist? That person must be kept out of office.
As Saudino was under fire in New Jersey, news broke that an Oklahoma police chief who resigned in disgrace after being tied to active neo-Nazi hate groups was almost immediately hired in a neighboring department – by a chief who was fully aware of his racist views.