Philiadelphia Pakastani Police captain tells federal jury of ethnic bias
/By most standards, the career of Philadelphia Police Capt. Khalid
Mohammed Syed would be considered a success story. A native of Pakistan
and a U.S. citizen since 1981, Syed, 49, served eight years in the Army
and attained the rank of captain. To Syed, however, that rise
masked a constant struggle against ethnic and religious bias, a
struggle that only got worse after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. Yesterday, Syed told a federal jury that his objection to a
sergeant who brought in a "bull's-eye" poster of Osama bin Laden seven
days after Sept. 11, 2001, triggered events that blighted his career
and got him exiled from the Police Academy to the night shift. Syed,
his voice at times quaking with anger, said the poster incident made
him "scared for my life" and "terrified" his wife and two young
children.
"I just could not believe that someone would have brought that poster in at a time like that," Syed testified, "at a time when hundreds of Muslims were being killed because people believed they were involved" in the Sept. 11 attacks. [more
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"I just could not believe that someone would have brought that poster in at a time like that," Syed testified, "at a time when hundreds of Muslims were being killed because people believed they were involved" in the Sept. 11 attacks. [more
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