As protesters gathered for the Democratic National Convention to protest the war in Gaza, a high-ranking Chicago police supervisor allegedly browbeat a Palestinian-American sergeant while making inflammatory statements about the ongoing conflict and the treatment of gay people in the Middle East.
The sergeant has since filed a complaint with a police commander that described Area 1 Deputy Chief Don Jerome’s comments as “offensive, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.” A police spokesperson said the department’s internal affairs bureau is probing the allegations.
Jerome, the sergeant and more than a dozen other officials were gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Deering District police station, 3120 S. Halstead St., where Jerome began joking about an earlier protest that brought together advocates for LGBTQ+ and Palestinian rights, according to the complaint.
“If those LGBTQ protesters were in Palestine, those Muslims would behead them for being gay,” Jerome allegedly said while “smirking and laughing.”
When the sergeant tried to tell Jerome that wasn’t true and urged the deputy chief to “stop spreading that type of rhetoric,” Jerome began questioning the sergeant and ordered him to provided information about the beheading of LGBTQ+ people, the complaint says.
Jerome then began ranting about Hamas, the Palestinian political and militant organization, asking the sergeant if its members “kill gays in Palestine,” according to the complaint. When the sergeant said he didn’t know the answer, Jerome “continued to intimidate and press ahead about demanding to know what [the sergeant] believes in.”
Jerome went on to say that Israel was “bombing and killing kids and innocent Muslims” because members of Hamas were hunkered in an underground tunnel system in Gaza, according to the complaint
“The display of hatred and clear acceptance of violence towards innocent Muslim Palestinian families who have been killed or injured is not consistent with the Chicago Police Department’s mission, values or department directive,” the complaint says.
Jerome “repeatedly badgered” the sergeant about his Muslim and Palestinian background, according to the complaint. But the sergeant said he refused to respond because he found Jerome’s questions were “offensive, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.”
Jerome ultimately acknowledged he didn’t know all the facts and offered to give the sergeant his personal email account so the sergeant could respond to his unanswered questions, the complaint says.
At one point, Jerome chuckled and smiled and told the sergeant, “I will remember your name.” The sergeant “perceived this as a threat, act of retaliation as well as further creating a hostile work environment,” according to the compliant.
In the end, the sergeant was left feeling “shocked, humiliated and embarrassed as he was being singled out in the presence of numerous department members and felt pressured to continuously [have] to defend and explain himself, his beliefs, his Muslim religion and Palestinian origin.”
The complaint holds that Jerome discriminated against the sergeant and broke various department rules.
Jerome is a longtime member of the department who was once honored at the White House in 2012 after he freed six people who were bound and gagged during an armed robbery at a store in Hermosa. Two suspects were apprehended.
But Jerome has also run into trouble, facing a handful of complaints that were sustained. Perhaps most notably, Jerome was suspended for 28 days for his role in the cover-up of then Supt-Eddie Johnson’s drunken driving incident in 2019.
At the time, Jerome was the commander of the Deering District, where Johnson was found slumped over in his police SUV after dismissing his driver and trying to drive home. Responding officers failed to admitted a sobriety test, giving Johnson a police escort home while watching him violate traffic laws. Johnson was ultimately fired.