Cop Claims Racial Taunts Followed DNA Test

(WOOD) Attorneys for the city of Hastings, Michigan, say a police officer who claims he was harassed about his racial background brought up his ancestry and made inappropriate jokes about it himself. In his lawsuit, Sgt. Cleon Brown claims his bosses and co-workers started harassing him after a test through an ancestry research website revealed he is 18 percent black. The most public evidence that Brown cited appeared on a Christmas tree in the lobby of the police department, where decorations included Santa figurines bearing the names of each officer. Brown’s Santa was had darker skin tone and “18%” was written on the beard. In a response filed with the court the city said Brown himself would mention it to his co-workers. “The topic of Brown’s heritage was basically forgotten by the members of the Department until Brown would bring it up again so as to joke about it,” the response from the city reads in part. The city also claims that some of the jokes Brown made about his own racial makeup were based in stereotypes and inappropriate. Read more: http://bit.ly/2qn6YVi