Dear Editor,
The headline of the lead article from the New York Post dated August 21 told the sordid tale: `NYPD captain to sue department for $5 million over alleged sexual harassment.’ This has become too routine in places dominated by strong and powerful men, who think that they are still on the plantation, and that the droit du seigneur operates. But as I read beyond the screaming headline, my head shook from the details that should be uplifting for all Guyanese, especially our women, while it was angering at the same time.
The details noted that the female officer, a captain no less, making the allegation is a Guyanese. And further, that she is of Indo Guyanese extraction. Now, there is a first, which she was the first of her kind -an Indo Guyanese-at that height. Perhaps, that is why we have never heard of her, since other than Mrs. Sharon Carolyn Balli, there is none other at the level of Captain in the NYPD. Even Black female officers at the elevations are a relative rarity, despite their longer tenures and greater numerical presences. So, in Mrs. Balli, a Guyanese trailblazer, there is a first.
But now her life and career has taken a nasty and ugly turn. She will have to pay, even if she succeeds in getting paid for her harassment and embarrassment pains. In fact, her travails are not in the future, but in the present. For, though she did all the right things: object, resist, and report, she is now being made into a scapegoat. She went to the Employment Opportunity Commission, which only led to a “toxic hostile working environment.” It is the classic case of the victim being made into a target. In addition, when Mrs. Balli referred her problem to her superiors, she was first told to “stand down” and then subjected to a probe by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs probe. It is because what she did, according to NYPD culture (and all the others, too), is the equivalent of the kiss of death, and with the high probability of having to kiss her progressive career goodbye. That is, any visions of the fast track for promotion on the merits; perhaps, even staying around for much longer. The closed “boys club” will see to that, and she will have to live her police life watching her back.
The bottom line is that whether Mrs. Balli prevails in her lawsuit or not, she is a marked woman. This, without a doubt, must be heavily disappointing for someone who rose to the rank of major in the US Army, probably another first, to be subjected to this kind of alleged degrading treatment. Returning for a moment to that Internal Affairs probe that is what superiors do: they sic that dog on troublemakers, who could tarnish the carefully cultivated image of the NYPD as a progressive organization respectful of minorities and women. Internal Affairs is usually unleashed on upstart complainants to intimidate them and cool their interest in obtaining justice. Internal Affairs is frequently used to give a clean bill of health (exonerate) to rogue officers who daily brutalize minorities, especially Black and Latino ones, in the streets. Internal Affairs is too often part of the coverup apparatus that finds nothing and gets nowhere. Case closed. Shattered prospects and lives with the pieces are left to be picked up and put back together by the wounded. It is just another day in the office.
Superiors and peers are men who come from the same background, sometimes grew up together, attended the same schools or academy together, socialize together, and together are committed to watching out for each other and protecting each other’s back, and then it is back to the bar for a celebration of yet another bullet dodged. Quite frankly, I am not too optimistic about Captain Balli’s chances of success, as the deck is already stacked against her. The camera that she installed is gone. That could have been her smoking gun. Otherwise, it is her word against her tormentor. In Guyanese lingo: he said, she said. It is a pity for a woman who came from a far way and went far. I wish her well.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
