The systematic racism endemic to our countries governmental and law enforcement departments has been becoming more and more highlighted and spoken against recently but for all the speak it doesn’t seem that much is actually changing.

This story emerging from the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department (which has decades long racism and discrimination complaints) shows that black cops may actively be being threatened as they try and fight the departments racism.

InTheBlackNation.com reported that in the early 2000s “a lawsuit against the department seemed to put a dent in the unwritten racist policies of the southern department.”. This lawsuit saw officers win in a case where they said previously promotions had gone to lesser experienced and qualified white police, “They claimed that police officials used racially discriminatory tests in order to determine who would be promoted.”

After that lawsuit there were more black promotions.

However, last fall “a federal appeals court over turned the lower court’s decision.”

This can of course be appealed but around 30 of 62 plantiffs are said to be being threatened with demotion if they do so.

The article said:

“The city wants to give an ultimatum: If you all continue on, we’re going to demote you back to patrolman,” Lt. Tyrone Currie, the treasurer of the Afro American Police Association Memphis branch said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “You should not retaliate against people just because they’re exercising their constitutional right to an appeal.”

Read more in InTheBlackNation.com here: http://intheblacknation.com/memphis-police-department-threatens-to-demote-black-cops-if-they-keep-complaining-about-racism/