NEW YORK (AP) - A police detective assigned to the security detail for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH’-zee-oh) has sued the city, saying he faces discrimination because he is black.
Erin Fitchett said in a $10 million lawsuit in Manhattan federal court Thursday that the New York Police Department maintains a secretive process allowing all-white supervisors to refuse to promote deserving black detectives.
A city law office spokesman said the lawsuit was without merit.
Fitchett joined the mayor’s detail in 2004. The lawsuit said he was a bodyguard for de Blasio’s children until last year, when he began directly serving the mayor, including sometimes driving his vehicle.
He said a new supervisor reassigned him to “invisible and superfluous jobs,” including spending a 17-hour shift in freezing temperature outside the mayor’s mansion.
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