Almost a year after posting a "Black Excellence" T-shirt that featured Joanne Chesimard, better known as Assata Shakur, New Jersey State Trooper Nyron Harris is facing termination.
NJ.com reports that Harris, who is black, was selling the T-shirts unaware that Shakur was on the shirt. The shirt contained a grid of nine portraits of prominent black women including Maya Angelou and Harriet Tubman with the words "Black Excellence." The shirt did not, however, identify them by name. In the bottom right corner of the shirt, a picture of Shakur can be seen.
Shakur was a former member of the Black Liberation Army and was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. Despite being listed as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, she remains an icon to the black liberation movement.
Harris says that her appearance on the shirt was an "honest mistake," a mistake that his lawsuit claims cost him his job. Harris says that in posting the Black Excellence T-shirts, he was simply trying to help promote his cousin's business.
In the suit, Harris also claims that his superiors drummed up minor infractions in an attempt to justify turning him away from the statewide force when he was up for reenlistment last summer. Harris' suit also says that the firing violated New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination because white troopers accused of far worse behavior were allowed to stay on the force.
A screenshot of the post was posted on the private Facebook group "The Outfit" which is run by retired troopers and has more than 1,600 members. NJ Advance Media investigated the group and claims that members were conspiring to get Harris fired.
Reviews showed a retired Trooper William Ames, who shared a screenshot of the post in March 2017, claiming Harris would be reenlisted and encouraging members to contact the colonel about "this human SH*T STAIN." Another post said, "one could go on the AG website and file a complaint anonymously using a false e-mail address."
The reasoning for Harris' denial of reenlistment has not been made clear by the force; however, it seems pretty obvious. A recent discipline report shows unnamed troopers found guilty of charges including domestic violence and drunk driving in 2016 were allowed to remain on the force after serving suspensions. It should also be noted that 79 percent of New Jersey state troopers are white.
It's amazing that promoting a shirt with a picture of Assata can get you fired, but killing an unarmed black man or woman time and time again will not.
