In a federal lawsuit, an NYPD cop is claiming that he was punished because he did not stop enough black and Hispanic teenagers in the subways.
According to a NY Daily News exclusive, Michael Birch, who was a transit cop in Brooklyn, had just received a poor evaluation in 2011 when he sat down to secretly record a meeting between himself and his commanding officer and a lieutenant.
During the meeting, Capt. Constantin Tsachas told Birch that most of his stops were women and white people, and Tsachas reminded Birch that the people committing crimes fit a different mold: specifically, they had darker skin.
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“You describe to me who’s committing the crimes, you’re fully aware of it and you’re not targeting those people,” Tsachas said on the tape.
The lieutenant, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, later chimed in to back up the captain, saying, “If you see a group of kids that meet that description, you’re not being racist and you’re not, what’s the word I’m looking for, stereotyping male blacks. I’m not saying you have to rip his coat and pants off.”
The suit says that Birch was punished for not going after black and Hispanic people more often; he was kept from overtime, given undesirable assignments and had his work monitored.
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Birch’s lawyer Eric Sanders also noted that, after the incident, Birch transferred to the 79th Precinct in Bed-Stuy, where, “miraculously, he has had no performance problems.”
Read more details from the Daily News.