Syracuse, NY ― A high-profile Black police officer who filed a Syracuse racial discrimination claim last month was reprimanded days later for posting a video that included him listening to rap music.
The reprimand came six days after a Syracuse.com story about his legal action against the police department.
Now, Officer Brandon Hanks, a hometown cop once seen as a bridge between the department and the Black community, is accusing the city of retaliation, too.
RELATED: Syracuse’s best-known police officer attacks department’s ‘Jim Crow culture’ in racial bias claim
For its part, city officials today said that they have received the amended complaint and are reviewing it.
The incident involving the rap music was discovered in February, when Hanks posted a video of himself to Facebook. He was in police uniform in his private vehicle at the time, according to accounts of the video.
At the heart of the controversy is the fact is that racial slang can apparently be heard in the video.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner today told Syracuse.com that rap music wasn’t the problem. Instead, the discipline came because of “racial slurs being used in the language with our officer on a personal Facebook post,” the chief said.
In the same reprimand, Hanks was also disciplined for posting profane song lyrics to Facebook, according to the filing.
When asked about the department’s social media policy, Buckner replied: “It’s pretty clear. Then for those who will say there are First Amendment rights, the law has been very very clear that there are some restrictions for law enforcement.”
Hanks wasn’t disciplined for the social media posts until July 1 — after the June 25 story on Syracuse.com — when he received a written reprimand in a letter signed by First Deputy Chief Joseph Cecile, according to an amended notice of claim filed against the city.
Cecile cites the term “n***a” as being against the department’s social media policy, according to a copy of the July 1 reprimand included in the amended claim.
In the new filing with the city, Hanks also provided a defense: the rap music heard in the Facebook video wasn’t coming from his car, wrote his lawyer, Jesse Ryder. Hanks is represented by Ryder and Charles Bonner.
None of the videos or social media posts in question are still public on Hanks’ Facebook page. They are not included in Hanks’ amended complaint.
But Hanks’ lawyers write that the recent discipline was retaliation and that a proper investigation would show that Hanks wasn’t the one playing the music. The complaint had previously accused the city of discrimination for making a big deal out of Hanks’ musical choices in the first place.
Kristen Smith, city corporation counsel, in a statement disputed the reprimand was retaliation against Hanks.
“As a result of social media posts that came to Syracuse Police Department’s attention in March 2021, Officer Brandon Hanks was issued a written reprimand for violating the department’s social media policy,” she said. “The reprimand was approved by Chief Buckner in early June, and prior to the filing of the notice of claim by Hanks’ lawyers on June 23, 2021.”
Hanks’ accusations of racial discrimination were made public last month when he filed the notice of claim against the city. That’s a required precursor to any lawsuit against the police department, putting them on notice of a grievance.
Hanks is asking $33 million in punitive damages and a judge’s order requiring the city to change the police department, including:
- New programs that provide equal employment opportunities for Black employees.
- A new system to assign, train, transfer, compensate and promote Black employees in a non-discriminatory manner.
- A task force on equality and fairness to monitor and report on the department’s progress.
Hanks, 28, who grew up on the city’s Southwest Side, has become the department’s most well-known officer in recent years after after making national headlines when he started playing basketball with local kids in full uniform and duty belt. He promised to buy new shoes for anyone who beat him.
His sneaker challenge was celebrated as a much-needed grassroots way to break down the barriers between police and the communities they cover. It caught the eye of NBA point guard Rajon Rondo, who donated sneakers for Hanks to give away.
Less than a month ago, Hanks stood on the steps of City Hall with Mayor Ben Walsh, Police Chief Kenton Buckner and others to help announce the creation of a Police Athletic League. In December, he received a Mayor’s Achievement Award.
Hanks also appeared to be a rising star for his more traditional policework, too. He made the department’s Gun Violence Suppression Detail, a unit he had to apply to be on. Hanks last year was recognized, along with another officer, for his actions when a man charged officers with a hatchet and he and another officer shot the man.
But Hanks decided to accuse the department of racial bias after being denied a role on Syracuse’s gang task force. The unit is staffed only with white officers.
Capt. Timothy Gay noted the social media video of Hanks with rap music playing in an internal memo describing concerns with adding Hanks to the undercover ranks, according to a copy filed with the original notice of claim in June.
Hanks was considered for a 30-day rotation on the gang violence unit upon recommendation from his direct supervisor, Lt. Donald Patti. Patti is a former member of the gang task force.
But Gay solicited concerns about Hanks from other officers after hearing of Patti’s recommendation, according to the internal memo.
On April 7, Gay met with members of the gang task force who looked for the social media posts.
“After speaking with them at length I am also confident that their concerns are no different than my own,” Gay wrote.
Among the concerns raised in Gay’s memo:
- During a traffic stop of Hanks, there were believed to be gang members in his car and possibly a person with a felony warrant. The memo does not name the people in the car or provide evidence for why members of the department believed gang members were in the car.
- Hanks was “allegedly” at the scene of a “shots fired” call while off-duty.
- Social media posts that included a Syracuse man who pleaded guilty in a federal racketeering sting, who tagged Hanks in a Facebook post that said, “Come pick up your shirt.” Other people, unnamed in the memo and who Gay alleges were gang members, asked Hanks on Facebook about “police related topics.”
- One of Hanks’ tattoos matches those of an alleged gang member.
- The incident involving Hanks listening to rap music while in his police uniform.
Hanks’ amended filing also makes two other allegations.
The first is that fellow officer, Sgt. Brandon Fougnier, texted the boy’s basketball coach at C-NS high school, where Hanks works as an assistant coach, regarding the original race bias claim.
A brief exchange is included in the filings:
“Your boy Hanks really went there…smh (shaking my head)” Fougnier wrote, according to the claim.
The coach responded:
“Hanks has called me for 5 years everytime your racist boys do some dumb sh*t to him. It’s f*cking insane.”
That coach, Kyle Martin, told Syracuse.com that he was longtime friends with both Hanks and Fougnier from basketball circles. He said he didn’t take Fougnier’s reference to “your boy” in the text as racist, but just as a common saying because Hanks worked for Martin.
Ryder, the lawyer, accuses Fougnier of intentionally using the word “boy” to describe Hanks, a Black man. He adds that it’s clear that Fougnier was accusing Hanks of playing the “race card.”
The other new accusation is that a wellness officer, Ann Clark, met confidentially with Hanks to discuss his frustrations in the department. She later went on social media, “liking” posts on a police Facebook page that were critical of Hanks following his race bias allegations.
Hanks has made no secret of the fact that he grew up in a troubled neighborhood and some of the people he knows ended up on the wrong side of the law.
“I grew up going to the Southwest Community Center. So as a kid the people that I meet at the Southwest Community Center are going to be my friends,” he said in a 2019 interview with Syracuse.com.
Hanks said he had to prove himself to other officers because he’d grown up in the city and built relationships with people who live in Syracuse. When people were pulled over in the city, Hanks said, they’d name-drop him to other officers even if they weren’t close friends. That brought on suspicion from officers that Hanks was associated with the wrong people, Hanks said in 2019.
But Hanks expressed hope two years ago that he was starting to gain the trust of his fellow officers.
“I think now they’re starting to see I’m not that type of person,” Hanks said at the time. “I don’t do shady stuff.”
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
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