A lawsuit was filed earlier in the year against Prince George’s County (Maryland) by -get a load of this- their own police officers. These officers accuse the police department’s, Chief Hank Stawinski of “failing to discipline appropriately the perpetrators, fostering an environment where racist conduct…is allowed to persist.”
Let’s back up a bit.
We’ve heard of the many cases where colored citizens were mistreated and degraded by the rotten officers who manage to worm their way into the police force, which by the way, is an organization meant to uphold public safety for all members of the community. The Washington Post released an article on the case on December 12th, sharing firsthand accounts by witnesses -not only of active officers but also by members of the community- about this kind of malicious behavior being ignored by the higher-ups who are able to put an end to this injustice. Not only are colored officers being penalized for drawing attention to this issue, but they are also being treated on a lower level than white officers, who are promoted and able to act upon their own discretion. Nothing sounds wrong here at all.
We can look at this as a burger -the classic metaphor used to explain the most fundamental concepts. The cheese, lettuce, and tomato are tastes that we already know of: policemen abusing their power, general prejudiced beliefs, and the immature racist behavior from the ones whom we are told we could trust. The seasoning and flavor of the patty define the burger, and this Prince George’s (See? The name already sounds like a burger joint.) County Spice reveals the corruption within the system in itself: the already present inequality between colored and white officers.
Smother it all with buns of neglect by the department and we’ve got a mean burger of nasty on nasty on nasty. And we all know how Americans feel about their burgers.
Automatic Suspect 
I had not read about this lawsuit. Thanks for writing about it! I appreciate the creativity that you applied to the writing of this post. I think you could have included some important details from the Post article to make sure the reader understands what is happening. Some of the details seem to be lost in the burger metaphor. I think you starting out with the lawsuit and pausing to “back up a bit” is quite effective. It certainly caught my attention because we don’t typically hear of officers bringing a suit against their own chief.
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