A Moroccan immigrant claims he has been barred from becoming a police officer because he's a Muslim and because he was not born in America. After passing the police exam in 2006 with a score of 85.6—"well above the passing grade"—Said Hajem's application "has been suspended in bureaucratic limbo," the Times reports. According to Hajem, that's because an officer reviewing his paperwork sabotaged his application because he didn't want people from "other countries" joining the NYPD.
The cop accused of undercutting Hajem's application is Officer Ricardo Ramkissoon, who purportedly refused to accept Hajem's references because they came from people with Middle Eastern names. "He told me, 'I need American names,'" said Hajem, who has filed suit against the NYPD. "He said, 'You may be a terrorist.'" Ramkissoon then allegedly tried to convince his superiors to reject the application by providing misleading information accusing Hajem of "tax evasion" and not disclosing a traffic summons he received while working as a livery driver. Hajem says he had given Ramkissoon IRS documents and court papers showing he had paid the proper amount in taxes and that the traffic summons had been dismissed.
Police spokesman Paul Browne rejected the Hajem's claims, noting that "the allegations fly in the face of the NYPD's well-established record of outreach and hiring." Browne added: "We have actively and successfully recruited native speakers of Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, Pashto and other languages ... Our linguist program is the envy of law enforcement worldwide." City lawyers requested that Hajem's claim be dismissed, but a judge rejected their motion and ruled that there was enough evidence for the case to move forward. An attorney from the city's Law Department told the paper: "We expect to prevail at trial."
