Dirty Little Secrets in NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau

Part of a larger story by Graham Rayman, published 12/1/10, was  the saga of a gay detective who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the NYPD and who subsequently transferred to Internal Affairs.

John, who was asked to take complaints from the public, describes a "frat-house" environment in IAB... At one point, a sergeant came over to him with a banana between his legs and asked him, "Is this the size you like?"
     John claims in his lawsuit that he told these co-workers not to use the epithets, and even suggested they shouldn't handle complaints filed by gay people because they were so intolerant toward them.
     At another point, a co-worker walked over to John's desk and said, "You're a meat gazer. I just caught you looking at my package." For more than a year in 2008 and 2009, this co-worker called John a "meat gazer" several times a week, the lawsuit says.
     John began filing complaints about the anti-gay remarks and his claims of harassment. "I was upset and stressed out about the harassment and abuse, and so I filed an IAB complaint," he says. "After I filed the complaint, they told me they were taking my gun and shield, and ordered me to see a department psychiatrist."
     The first question that the psychiatrist asked him was whether he was going to bring a lawsuit, he says.
     ...His bosses, he says, started giving him a lot more work than the other people in the office. He complained, and his supervisor brought charges against him for insubordination. "They made my life miserable," he says. "There was a backlog, and I was given 1,700 parking-related complaints to follow up on."