Halloween Costume Makes Waves
February 5, 2013
A photo of a man dressed as a Muslim female Target employee is found to be of a St. Paul police officer who works off duty at a Target store. FYI: The first Somali officer joined the St. Paul force in 2012. Click to read the story.
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CJS-360 Diversity Issues 
Sometimes what police officers do in uniform or out can have a direct affect either negative or positive on how minority communities view police. It would be safe to say this was a joke, but look what happened in 1994-95 during the OJS trial. Things that were said on duty and off duty came back to hurt the LAPD.
I believe this may hurt his image and the image of St. Paul PD in the community. The incident distracts from all the good things that SPPD is doing with community and diversity. As NK says, things both on and off duty have an impact. But hey! People dress up like police officers for Halloween all the time and cops don’t complain or wonder who is mocking them. I guess that is because of the power difference between who is mocking and who is being mocked.
Why would you do something like that? To show others how ignorant you are? Target being a company of diversity and helping out children and families for years and St. Paul police department trying to take the next step to diversity. St.Paul Police department should be ashamed. This should tell all that their needs to be a change in the criminal justice system of all levels of employment.
I dont understand the purpose of the man wearing a costume like that maybe he just thought it wa just a simple joke. Whether it was a joke or not it was inappropriate. I think when people do stuff like this they don’t think about how others might feel afterwards. I think the Saint Paul Police Department should inform its officers about diversity and differences so things like this could be avoided.
“My first concern is that how do people always rush to conclusion without event asking why did the guy wear those customs? I am sure if he knew what he is going to go through if he is found wearing those custom he will not event try them on. Here in America, every year people often dress up in different customs for Halloween. Why didn’t anyone question the people who wear customs such as nurses or police? My opinion is that if we let someone do something similar to what others do they should not be criticized. IT has to be uniform to everyone.”
To me, i don’t see it as that big of a deal because i really don’t see anything that can be done about it except for the officer apologizing to the muslim community and to the SPPD for embarrassing them the way he did. If this guy wasn’t a police officer, this story wouldn’t be seen at all but the fact that he is an officer of the law, its a huge story. Police officers are human too and make mistakes. I believe this officer should address this issue but as far as suspending him, i don’t believe that should happen. People of other cultures make fun of people from other cultures quite often. When Floyd Mayweather Jr fought Oscar De La Hoya, Mayweather walked out to traditional mexican music wearing a sombrero and mexican poncho and nobody made a big deal about that. But again, this man is an officer of the law and should be more careful about what he posts on social networks
Police officer are people of authority, they need to think about this all the time. This police officer also embarrassed fellow officers, what you do on or off the clock affects how all the people in blue look. People are always looking at the police, they are seen every day, one wrong judgment call affects everyone, not just the one police officers. Nothing would be said if this guy wasn’t a police officer, but this guy was. Doesn’t matter what he posts, it shouldn’t happen to begin with. Position of authority like a police officer is well above two boxers fighting each other this was not even on the same playing field.
Yah, i’m with the majority of my fellow students..that was really stupid. As gatekeepers of the criminal justice, we have to be very cautious of what we do in our spare time because when and if incidents like this happens, it becomes oversensationalilzed in the media. Now i’m not saying that this incident doesn’t deserve attention, but I really think he was just being ignorant and insensitive to other’s customs. Which is not a good thing since he is a public servant and we definitely do not want all public servants behaving that way, but we’ve also seen a lot more degrading things done then that. Overall I’m not defending this officer’s actions but I also do not feel that a veteran of the St. Paul PD should be suspended for such a menial act. I think the best approach is to keep him off the streets for awhile and enroll him in some sensitivity training! Minnesota, especially the St. Paul and Minneapolis region, have the largest population of Somalian immigrants so we really need to start understanding instead of ostrasizing those who are different.
I recognize everyone has an opinion about everything he or she sees or hears in the news or elsewhere. But some things are so obvious it does not need a rocket scientist to determine if any harm is intended or not. Yes, this man dressed as a Muslim woman in a Halloween Costume and the Muslim communities are outraged. What if he had dressed like a Nun, would Catholic Church members be as outraged as the Muslim communities? Or, would the FBI be looking for him had he dressed like John Dillinger? Let’s get serious people; diversity issue is a very serious problem in our society, so let us stop trivializing it by paying attention to petty things like Halloween Costumes. There is nothing ANTI about the different costumes people wear during Halloween. As a matter of fact wearing different costumes is the main attraction of Halloween. I think people are reading into things too much nowadays.
I agree with you. It was halloween. I really do not see the issue here. Now, had this been a different day of the year, then yes, there would be an issue. Police officer or not, no one should be condemmened for the halloween costume they choose to wear. They need to find something more important to worry about. This was ridiculous!
I agree. I think that if this was not an officer involved, it would not make the news. It is halloween, people wear all kinds of costumes. The officer probably did not think of the outcomes of wearing this costume in the area he works, but he wore it and he obviously knows it probably wasn’t the best idea. But then again, who can say who can wear what on halloween? People dress up like killers from movies and they make costumes regarding other cultures. I think this story got blown out of proportion.
I don’t think we can judge this officer without knowing all the facts surround this picture.. Maybe some of his Muslim co-worker put him up to it or he lost a bet with one of them. Would you feel differently about it if his Muslim co-worker approved of it? We should wait to find out what the investigation reveals. If you look at the picture it looks like it was taken in the admin part of the store. Now on the other hand, if his intent was to maliciously depict Muslim women, well that would be lapse in judgment on the officers behalf.
There are many factors surrounding this sensitive subject: One is the muslim community. They in itself find it hard to trust the criminal justice system and police forces in General. Two, the law enforcement community. As Chief Smith Stated, the SPPD has been trying to build a relationship with the muslim community and does not want this picture to tarnish. I personally think this is a mockery of this specific ethnic group. It may be funny tom some but can be damaging to others. Community Oriented Policing is vital in all communites because it institutes trust and rapport. Its a vital component in generating good policing. I think its a good idea that this officer endures diversity training. He should embrace it, make a presentation to the community and police department on why its important to keep good relationships in the community, be accepting of ones ethnice differences.
Like my fellow commenters have stated, this was very bad decision that the officer made. Being an officer you should know that you are always in the spotlight and no matter what you do, on duty or off duty, active or retired you will always be talked of as an officer. If he got drunk and drove and killed someone it would be in the papers as “Saint Paul Police officer ……. fatally kills 1 in drunk driving accident.” Even if you were retired it would still be “retired Saint Paul officer…….”
Even if this was not meant to harm, degrade or had no malicious intent it is still something that needs to be brought to attention and dealt with. Yes this is a small incident and doesn’t really hurt anyone but just like in broken windows, if the small things don’t get dealt with there is a perception that no one cares and is paying attention so maybe even more serious things can occur.
This incident should be a learning moment for not just the officer involved but for everyone.
Great response Tou, you touched on some very important points. Once a cop, always a cop. I don’t really understand why officers continue to do things like this and not expect backlash. And good application of the broken windows theory to his behavior. I never really thought of it that way!
Tou, I agree with what you say about how a cops actions are highly scrutinized wether on or off duty. Additionally, you give a good example about how an off duty officer would be labeled by his/her job title in the newspaper if they were arrested for DWI. Other actions, like off-duty statements that were racist or degrading to another group would also likely lead to a news story, and that officer losing their job.
That being said, I think it is important to look at what exactly “modern halloween” is in America. How long have athiests been dressing up as Jesus or christian nuns one day a year? I know asain friends of mine that have dressed up as a Mexican mariachi band: sombreros, guitars, fake mustaches and all. Now with this case, in the spirit of halloween, is it really so bad for a white cop and a black cop to wear a hijab? I would argue no. Under any other circumstances, it would be unacceptable. For example, if the officers had some type of “prop” with those costumes that made them a channel for stereotype or racism, it would be unacceptable. From what we know, this was not the case. This was blown out of proportion by a group of people who hold a grudge against law enforcement. This group took what was meant to be a joke (like any other halloween costume), and used it to fuel a media frenzy.
The backlash that SPPD is receiving is ridiculous. Should a cop not put on a lederhosen, out of fear that the German community will be offended? Or refrain from wearing a native american costume, fearing they will be offended? The answer is no, because historically it has not happened. Off-duty cops, will continue to dress up and “mock” other cultures or people on halloween just like all of their friends who are not cops. The fact that these SPPD officers did not go any farther than simply dressing up like someone else, should be reason enough not to be criticized for their actions.
For this officer cultural field training would be far more beneficial for the officer rather than just cultural training which would most likely occur in a classroom environment. When I first read this article I thought this was a little over board for the amount criticism it has received. But, that opinion was at first glance and from my perspective as a suburban white male. After reading some of the comments on this article I realized I’ve actually been to Islamic countries before and the reaction from the Islamic population doesn’t seem unnecessary. Respect for Islam and Islamic culture is something many Christians don’t really understand. There are several countries where a person will only encounter people of the Islamic faith. With a scenario like that, a Muslim may never encounter a person who blatantly mocks or disrespects his or her faith in such a manner. This isn’t the case for every Muslim, but it kind of paints a bigger picture as to why the Islamic community could be outraged about this officer’s actions.
In one of the comments someone had said something to the effect of, if he dressed up like a catholic nun then nothing would have come of it. Imagine coming from a country where nearly everyone was a devout Catholic and no one ever disrespected the Catholic religion. One day you leave your country for another one which has invited you to pursue higher education, and the country’s people just don’t like you because you are Catholic so you get made fun of and mocked; although you were invited. End result you would be highly offended on a regular basis. The majority class rules whether it is by sheer numbers, affluence, or power. Majority class plays a huge part in how an offender is punished (or not punished) and how the victim is treated. This officer has a lot of advantages which stem from circumstances that are rarely considered. One major circumstance is living in the United States where the country’s ruling class is predominately white Christians.
I believe being a police officer or any position of authority you need to think that you are always on camera and you need to act professionally at all times, on or off the clock. This type of thing may reflect the way this police officer thinks or may look to others what he thinks. People might take this the wrong way. Even in fun or not, police are always in the hot seat. The police officer might not have been thinking about anything but it being a funny thing to dressing like a Muslim woman for Halloween. Police officers are always seen and the most noticeable and should always think of how others might take what you are doing the wrong way. Not saying what he did was wrong or right, but maybe people of authority need to think about what there are doing. Our streets are hard to police as there without putting in to question if an officer is a racist or not. Your image needs to be in your mind constantly.
I think some people might be overly critical of the officer in this picture without knowing the full details behind it. We have all probably made poor decisions in the past. Obviously this was probably not one of the officer’s best decisions. It appears like the photo was taken in a private home and the article states that it was a Halloween costume. I think even though it was a poor decision to wear the costume, the situation that it was worn in has a bearing on how the situation and the officer should be treated and that without knowing that situation we should not jump to conclusions and over criticize the officer. For example, the amount of harm and criticism for officer would be different had the officer worn this costume out to large event such as the Zombie pub crawl or a bar costume contest compared to a small costume party in a private residence occupied by a handful of people.
Cory Schaller has an important point though. Police officers face a lot of criticism and it is important that they evaluate their actions on and off duty in order to maintain that professional image that has taken so much work to achieve by other officers, their department, and themselves.
When law enforcement officers take their oaths, they agree to be held to a higher standard than that of the public. Yes, the argument could be made that it was Halloween and other costumes or other people wouldn’t make the news. The relationships that police departments and their officers make with communities in which they serve are vital to being effective. Something like this can destroy such a relationship. In a community as diverse as St. Paul, a good relationship with every community within the city is important. This officer, while just one of a very large department, wears the uniform with St. Paul on it. His actions, whether intentional or not affect the department, on duty or not. I also believe that being a police officer has the tendency to become who someone is instead of what they do. The officer made a mistake. Intentional or not, it was inappropriate. It was also something that probably shouldn’t have been posted onto a public instagram account.
What I found interesting about this article is, why would this police officer decide to dress up in a hijab? He may have thought that it may have been cool to dress up like that but what I also don’t understand is, what about people dressing up as priests or nuns during halloween? Are they also a disgrace to those communities as well? Religion is a big part of everyone’s lives and that it is also important to everyone who has a religion. Police officers are viewed as being professional and who every respects because of what they do but I would say that people makes mistakes sometimes because they do not think beforehand about what consequences that can come up if they were to do this or that. A consequence for doing this is disgracing the Muslim community and the SPPD trying to build a relationship with the Muslim community may have to be put on hold for a while until this issue is resolved.
To answer the question about nuns and priests, Christianity is fair game to make fun of. We see it all the time and yet if someone offends a different religion then it has a completely different outcome. I say either let everyone offend everybody or nobody offends anybody. I still remember when the voice actor for chef on south park got all upset because they were mocking scientology. And yet, he was okay with mocking everyone else. We are all okay with mocking someone else but then get offended when it is our group who is being ridiculed.
I think this was an issue that was blown way out of proportion. This officer was not on duty, and did not have any city equipment on. Halloween costumes are meant for many things, not only to poke fun at other cultures. As Chad A. pointed out, what if a co-worker approved it? The article says that “many Somali and Oromo women work there.” What if Buth did this to see how it would be live a day in the clothing these woman wear daily. I never once saw in the article that Buth did this to make fun of the culture, but the article made this assumption.
This would be different if Buth did this as a direct attack to the Somali culture. My bet is that he thought it would be funny to wear this, but did not do it to insult the culture. This is the same for most people who wear any type of costume on Halloween.
The thing that bugs me about this is how overly sensitive some people are. Just because I’m a partial redhead, should I get upset every time someone tells a Ginger joke? That is entirely unreasonable.
I did like how Lori Saroya worded her opinion, “It seems like a silly, unprofessional incident that happened. We’re confident the St. Paul police department will handle it appropriately. I don’t think he did it to be offensive or mean-spirited. It just seems to be ignorance.”
I get it that he is a cop and should be held to a higher standard, on and off duty. I can also understand how he wouldn’t think there would be a reaction quite like this for something silly. If he didn’t mean any harm, then this should turn in to a learning experience for both sides. Many people don’t realize how important and sacred the hijab and other clothing is to the Muslim people. On the other side, people need to become more tolerant to others, even if it is a joke against them.
Cjs-360
The police department should be more professional and should respect people’s religions, cultures and beliefs. We Muslims believe this what the hajaba represent. Muslim women are required in Islam to cover themselves whenever they are outside of their homes or in the presence of non-mahrem men. This provides many benefits to the Muslim woman herself as well as to the society as a whole. The word hijab is derived from the Arabic root hajaba, which means to hide from view or to conceal. Many people use it to refer to the headscarf which Muslim women wear, but hijab is much more than a headscarf: it is an entire way of dressing, behaving and believing. It is acceptable to name the scarf hijab so long as it does not lead to the wrong impression that a headscarf is the only requirement of true hijab. After all, anyone can wear a headscarf (gypsies, fashion models, etc.), but it takes much more than that to fufill the conditions of Islamic dress.
I understand that some feel as though this issue was blown out of proportion. But I do believe police officers have to be more professional and watch what they say and do because they are a public figure. Some may say this is silly and people are overly sensitive but when it comes down to culture issues there are going to be people who poke fun of culture identities, people who don’t think it’s an issue, people who think it’s wrong but don’t do anything about it, and people who do care and ARE going to be sensitive about it AND say something (especially if it’s their culture being made fun of). We need to educate ourselves on other cultures and respect it. What you perceive right or wrong may be different from someone else.
I first heard about this story at work. I work directly next to the target location mentioned in the article in the Somali community. When this picture hit the media we had SPPD officers and liaisons on site at my work to talk with the Somali community regarding the issue. There were a few people that appeared upset about the issue but the majority of the people present at the meeting rather found it funny themselves and laughed about it. I agree with another person who posted prior saying that it was a Halloween costume and people dress as police officers, fire fighters, etc. for Halloween. I also see the racial side of it if the officers intent was to in fact mock and poke fun or attack the Muslim religion, tradition, etc. At work I am asked multiple times a day to try being Muslim, to dress in a hijab, to try fasting during Ramadan, to not eat pork, or to read the quaran. Knowing that I am not Muslim, I would feel as if I were to try doing this would mock their culture, whether they asked me to do it or not. Going back to the article, I don’t believe that it was in the officers intent to disrespect the Somali culture. It was merely just to be funny for Halloween, just like guys will dress as girls on Halloween, and girls like guys. In my personal opinion I feel like the people who are feeling offended by this are being too sensitive to the matter.
I see things like this and immidiately i believe this is something that gets blown up for no reason. I think he was trying to be goofy and did not mean to harm anybody since it was for halloween. Having said that and reading into more of the comments, I can see how this would offend some people. We have a deep set thought of stereotypes in our culture and we do not always realize how much people are affected by the way we portray them. The officer should probably have known better than to dress like this in the end, but I do believe this is not that big of a deal.
There are many mix feelings that come into play when I read this article. The first thing that came into mind was was this a joke in his eyes or was he being serious. Like stated in above comments when you are a police officer you are going to be watched on and off duty. It is something society does and there is no way of changing it. If the police officer thought that this would be funny in doing so then he should be punished for giving the community a bad perspective of St. Paul Police Department. When you work for a company or in this case a police department you are not only representing yourself but your coworkers as well. I would not want to work with someone who would be going around town dressed like different characters from different religions. I respect that there are many religions and beliefs from people in our community, what is the reason to joke about that?
I’m glad so many of you took the time to reply to this. But some of you said its not a big deal. You maybe right but lets look at the big picture. When we decided to be a officers there’s somethings we knew we couldn’t do and appearing to make fun of people who dress a certain because of their religion is one of them.
When I read chapter four of the book The color of Justice lets look at from that point. Page 198 The Situation Today ..overt discrimination directed againist African American. The people that run this country, the courts, police departments and the banks may feel the same way it’s a joke, get over it, stop talking about or how about its ok because history shows that people of color have been treated unfair for every so they should deal with it. Is that why so many people of color take charges and plea bargaining when they know they should be free.
I found this article to be very disheartening. As a police officer, you are held to the highest standards whether in or out of uniform. It is unfortunate that one insensitive individual can cause so much harm to not only the Muslim community but also the SPPD as a whole. Whether his intentions were meant to be hurtful or not, they were. I hope that this individual realizes the consequences of his actions and goes through more diversity and sensitivity training before he is re-instated to his duties.
I believe that is a very ethical dilemma that needs to be looked at on several levels. There are going to be two sides. Some will believe that it is not a big deal because it is just halloween and he can dress up any way he would like. Others believe that it is wrong. Why? Because it is discriminating against ones ethnicity. It also depicts a police officer who should take into consideration that as a police officer your job is twenty-four-seven. It does not matter if they are on the clock or not.
As a former police chief of Saint Paul, John Harrington made it a goal of his to bring the community together no matter what ethnicity or background. Community oriented policing was implemented and more individuals were opening up to the police. It is known that some ethnicities are still against talking to the police. This may be because the communication barrier or how they have grown up. Saint Paul has been working to decrease the barriers that have appeared in the past but this decision by the police officer may lead to negative affects on both the Saint Paul police department and Target.
This relates to The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America, chapter 6. By part the chapter talks about race and ethnicity within the criminal court. It talks about reforms and racial discrimination within the court room. This article leads to changes within both Target corporation which is held in Minnesota and Saint Paul police department due to a decision a police officer made to display a different ethnicity on halloween.
All public service officers should be mindful of what they say and do, and how they portray themselves in public either on duty, or off duty because of the undue attention given to irrelevant matters in our society nowadays. One man’s food is another man’s poison; that is what is amusing to one racial category can be insulting to the other. This St. Paul Police officer may have offended the Somali race for dressing up like a Muslim woman for Halloween, but we must not fail to realize that his intention could not have been to hurt the public’s feelings. He must have felt some sense of belonging to that community and went out of his way to purchase the costume and dress up like one of them for Halloween. Moreover, Halloween is about having fun and impersonating different characters. People have dressed up as doctors, movie stars, dentist and much more without raising any controversy. I wonder if it would have made a difference if the officer was from the racial category (Somali male) that he represented on Halloween.
While I do not condone his actions, we should not forget the officer’s positive contribution to the society. I think he should have been more careful about how he portrayed himself in the media/public. Been a public servant officer, the society will watch and judge everything you say and do, and as it stands giving this officer some diversity training will probably be a good idea to enable him uphold higher ethical standards in his future endeavors.
I perfectly understand why many would have been offended by his actions. I want to encourage everyone to keep an open mind and be objective about things generally focusing on more serious issues in our diverse society.
This is another story on how someone who thinks they are committing a simple a harmless joke can turn into a huge problem and it can actually really offend someone. I’m sure the person who dressed up as the target employee wasn’t trying to offend someone, but women who dress like this every day would be offended by this. Everybody looks at things differently. In the chapter on the death penalty 51% of whites believe that the death penalty is used fairly however only 32% of African Americans believe this. The person who thought dressing up this way wasn’t a big deal but others saw it differently. Just because you think someone doesn’t offend you it doesn’t mean it won’t offend others.
First of all, I think before having an honest discussion about tolerance, cultural diversity and the impact that has on a public official’s life, one has to discuss the importance of being culturally aware. In this era, it would be career suicide to express such poor taste of humor in a country like the United States of America. The world, and indeed the USA have become such diverse melting pots that they are composed of an amalgamation of cultures; each unique and sophisticated, yet under the same umbrella we all call the USA.
Clearly the officer violated a cultural taboo, and like many comments have alluded to, he should have known that as a public official he is held to higher standard. That was a let down for the department that he represents, and the people that he is sworn to serve and protect.
Now, if I may play devil’s advocate for a little bit here; have we as a people become so gloomy and thus lost our sense of humor? Have we become too serious that we can’t even laugh at ourselves a little? What makes this so bad if we still wear costumes depicting nuns, police officers, fire fighters and natives on halloween? How come none of those groups take up arms to protest such costumes that clearly depict them in compromising and skewed light?
I guess a good question to ask is how far is too far?
I think that it is very unfortunate that this police officer did not realize what all the consequences of this costume would have on himself, the Saint Paul Police Department, and the Muslim community. This picture shows the ignorance of that police officer, as he most likely thought it was just a funny costume. Police departments are always trying to build better relationships with all the different types of communities that they serve, and unfortunately this picture was a setback. However, I do not think that the officer should be terminated for this, but instead it shows that police officers need more diverse training. Police officers should know that they are always held to a higher standard than a civilian, and should think twice about doing anything that they think would create conflict.