Harvard cop fights racism charge

Must not speak firmly to blacks:

"Harvard University police officer Theresa McAuliffe has spent a decade teaching self-defense to women and patrolling the Cambridge school's hallowed grounds but now may lose her job because she's been accused of racial profiling. McAuliffe and the other officer, whose name has not been released, are on paid administrative leave but face a disciplinary hearing at which they could be fired. The pair are accused of racial profiling for an Aug. 8 incident in which they were called to a report of a man stealing a bike.

The pair went to a bike rack on campus where they found a black teenager cutting a lock off a bicycle. The officers later learned the bike belonged to the teen and that he was cutting the lock off because his key broke. The teen has since complained that he was verbally abused by the officers and says McAuliffe pointed her gun at him.

A Braintree mother of three, McAuliffe admits she and her colleague used "authoritative voices," but denies pointing her sidearm at the teen. She said she had her hand on her gun and unlocked it from its safety holster in case she had to use it. "I had it pushed forward so if I needed it it was ready," she said. "When you can't see their hands or their face, you don't know what they have. You have to assume they have a weapon."

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