New Jersey Police Officer Says Her Bantu Knots Got Her Into a Mess of Trouble
The Crown Act continues to gain momentum around the country. But that hasn’t stopped people of color from having to fight for their right to wear their hair in natural, culturally significant styles. The latest comes from a New Jersey police officer suing the township where she works and its police captain, claiming discrimination against her natural protective hairstyle.
Officer Chian Weekes-Rivera filed a lawsuit last week, alleging Maplewood Township, NJ punished her for “having Black hair.” The officer claims that just over a week after showing up to work wearing Bantu knots, Internal Affairs informed her that she’d violated the department’s on-duty dress code. Weekes-Rivera’s suit goes on to say that her sergeants were also implicated, charged with “failure to supervise.”
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“Maplewood is trying to send a chilling message to the entire department that not only are we going to discriminate against Chian, we are going to hold other people accountable for not discriminating against her,” said Weekes-Rivera’s attorney, John Coyle.
As of this writing, NBC News reports that Maplewood Township, the police department and police captain Peter Kuenzel have yet to speak publicly about the case.
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