Washington, DC, March 28, 2005–In mid 2004, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) was contacted by Joe Mansour. Mansour is an Arab American who has ten years experience working with the Bureau of Prisons.
Mansour is a Safety Specialist, member of the Special Operation Response Team, and also since 1996 an EEO Counselor and Dispute Resolution Specialist with the prison. Since that time he has formally resolved 35 cases and informally resolved numerous others. Additionally, he has provided Arabic to English translation services for other government agencies. Mansour had also played a vital role in the war on terror, including warning different agencies of known terrorists corresponding from prisons with other known terrorists.
However, following September 11, the environment in which Mansour worked began to change. He started to receive derogatory and degrading emails. Other employees began to harass Mansour and call him racially insulting names. He noted that he was passed up for many awards and commendations. During meetings with his supervisors, he was told to “go back to where he came from,” if he didn‘t like the way things were.
Mansour, using his training as an EEO counselor and dispute resolution specialist, tried to work out his problems through the system, to no avail. As the hostility in his workplace environment increased, Mansour decided to file an employment discrimination claim with the Department of Justice and currently has an open investigation. His story as an Arab-American federal law enforcement officer, facing discrimination while trying to serve his country, is now making headlines across the nation.
Mansour will be presenting his story at ADC‘s upcoming Convention at the Saturday, May 28, “Question and Answer with Your Federal Government,” from 11:15 am — 12:30 pm. For more information, see:
https://www.adc.org/schedule.htm
More information about his story can be found at:
Muslim Cops Sue Chicago P.D. For Discrimination–By Jon Yates, The Chicago Tribune
https://www.policeone.com/policeone/frontend/parser.cfm?object=News&operation=full_news&id=90071
MSNBC, Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7046691/