Photo courtesy of Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
Chanel Dickerson, the Assistant Police Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., was told to have an abortion or lose her job. Dickerson revealed the news at a community meeting on Oct. 19.
Dickerson and nine other former and current Black Metropolitan Police Department police officers filed a lawsuit against the city for discrimination back on Sept. 22.
The lawsuit contends that the officers were subjected to sexual harassment and racial discrimination. Several officers also alleged that they were pushed out of their jobs on the police force after reporting the abuse.
Dickerson has been on the police force since 1988 and said that she was told if she didn’t have an abortion, she would be fired.
“When I was 18 years old as a police cadet, I was told I had to have an abortion or be fired from the MPD cadet program. My choice to have a baby was personal and it should’ve been mine alone and not for an employer ultimatum,” she said.
Another MPD officer, Karen Arikpo, also claims she was told she had to have an abortion or face termination from the force. Dickerson noted that she has also seen rampant discrimination within the MPD. Both women regret their decisions say they felt forced into having abortions by their employer or risk losing their livelihoods. The lawsuit also asserts that the MPD treated Black female officers with contempt and psychological abuse.
“They come together as a class here to describe how the MPD has, for decades, treated Black women police officers with contempt, to the point of systematic psychological abuse,” the lawsuit said, adding that the officers were met with “intense pervasive retaliation against those who dared to complain about, report or oppose unlawful discrimination.”
Knight spoke out about the lawsuit when it was filed back in September and said that she and her colleagues were labeled “angry Black women.
“But the worst of it, we were labeled as troublemakers, angry Black women. And I’m here to say we are not angry Black women. We are tired women. And no one should have to endure what we did,” she said.
Black officers were also forced to pose with known Proud Boy members or listen to assassination threats about First Lady Michelle Obama.
Also suing the city are former MPD officers Sinobia Brinkley, Regenna Grier and Tabatha Knight, who were all forced out of their jobs. Former 2019 Officer of the Year Tiara Brown quit in 2020. Current officers Leslie Clark, Tamika Hampton, Karen Carr, LaShaun Lockerman and Kia Mitchell, are part of the lawsuit against the MPD.
The lawsuit is asking for $100 million in damages for the decades of abuse the women endured.