New Jersey Police Officer Sues Town, Claiming She Was ‘Disciplined for Having Black Hair’

A Black police officer in New Jersey had filed a lawsuit against Maplewood Township, the police department, and Maplewood Police Captain Peter Kuenzel for allegedly violating a 2019 law against discrimination. 

According to the lawsuit, filed on Oct. 30, Chian Weekes-Rivera was subjected to“disciplinary action for having Black hair,” after wearing Bantu knots — a traditional African hairstyle — to work on Aug. 20.

Weekes-Rivera said she received a complaint notifying her that she violated the department’s on-duty dress code, and her sergeants were disciplined for “failure to supervise” for refusing to order Weekes-Rivera to change her hairstyle.

“To get that paper, it was cringeworthy,” Weekes-Rivera told NBC News. “I had to ask him questions to stop myself from crying.”

The complaint came after Weekes-Rivera was featured in a 2021 township video celebrating the diversity of its police officers called “Sheroes of the Maplewood Police Department,” the lawsuit said.

Asserting that her rights under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) were violated, Weekes-Rivera said she wants a judge to order the township and Kuenzel to comply with the anti-discrimination law and produce copies of policies on officers’ hairstyles and complaints about her hair, the New Jersey Monitor reported.

With Gov. Phil Murphy's signing of the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act) in 2019, the state’s Law Against Discrimination was updated to include “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture, hair type, and protective hairstyles” as protected under the prohibition on race discrimination.

“As defined in the bill, the term ‘protective hairstyles’ includes, but is not limited to, ‘such hairstyles as braids, locks, and twists,’” the suit said.

According to the New Jersey Monitor, this isn't Weekes-Rivera's first lawsuit against the township. She also sued the township last year over its vaccine mandate claiming she had a religious exemption. A court sided with her and four other officers with religious objections in its ruling.

The Legal Defense Fund defines hair discrimination as “policies that prohibit natural hairstyles, like afros, braids, Bantu knots, and locs” to justify the removal of Black children from classrooms, and Black adults from their employment. 

According to the Fund, the concept is rooted in systemic racism and looks to “preserve white spaces” by forcing people of color to conform to Eurocentric professionalism and beauty standards.