Death of NYPD officer spotlights rise of Bangladeshi immigrants within ranks

New York – Outside the Bronx mosque where a New York police officer was complimentary last week, a group of officers in their official navy uniforms solemnly hung a banner with the young officer’s photography and the name of his brotherhood, the Bangladesh American Police Association.

Didarul Islam – One of the four people killed during the July 28 shootout at the Manhattan Office Tower housing the NFL seat – was the first American Bangladai officer of Nypd killed in the exercise of his functions.

Its funeral underlined the fertile recruitment ground that the department has found in the city flourishing in the city. According to the association, more than 1,000 of the approximately 33,000 members in NYPD uniform are Bangladais Americans. 1,500 other people from the Bangladais heritage are among the 19,000 civilian employees in the department.

These figures are up only a few officers a few decades ago, a phenomenon that certain Bangladais officers partially attribute to their own patriotic response to the anti-Muslim feeling after the September 11 attacks, as well as active recruitment and mouth in the community.

Among the sea of NYPD officers who aligned the street to honor Islam, 36, some who opted for traditional outfits from South Asia, their police badges carried around their neck. Many have joined the crowds of mourning people who knelt in the street in prayer.

“He actually raised our community in a way that was not imaginable before,” said Shamsul Haque, one of the co-founders of the Bangladais group of NyPD. “His heritage will continue not only as a hero who gave his life to protect others, but also as a symbol of American hope, integrity and dream.”

When Haque joined NYPD in 2004, he was one of the few Bangladais immigrants. Many of those who joined wanted to dispel the idea that all Muslims were terrorist sympathizers, he said.

Haque, which immigrated to the United States in 1991, had recently obtained its university diploma with a diploma in business administration when the twin towers fell. But rather than following his peers in a financial field, he signed up for the police academy, a decision he recognized initially met the skepticism of his parents.

In the aftermath of September 11, NYPD built a domestic surveillance program which for years systematically spied on Muslim communities and monitored local businesses, mosques and students of students in the search for terrorist cells.

Haque, 52, who retired earlier this year after having become the first South Asian and the first Muslim to reach the rank of Lieutenant-commander of the NYPD, said that the perception of Muslims among the basic members had improved.

At the start of his career, he remembers having been chosen when an expert in the fight against terrorism warned the police during a training session on the possibility that Al-Qaida agents infiltrate force.

“Over the years, people have started to realize that we are working hard, we are ethical,” said Haque. “Although we are immigrants, we are patriotic.”

To increase their number, Haque and others have entered the community to proselytize a reasonable path for immigrants recently arrived.

Bangladais budding agents have been encouraged to occupy civilian jobs in the department, such as traffic application agents and school security agents, who do not require American citizenship. After obtaining citizenship, generally in about five years, they could then apply to the police academy to become a uniform officer.

Some 60% of all the Bangladais heritage officers in NYPD followed this pipeline, said Haque. Islam, the officer killed last week, began his career as a school security officer after immigrant in the United States about 16 years ago.

The visible growth of the Bangladeshs in NYPD has helped a lot to aspire to leadership roles in the department, as well as the generations of Irish, Italian and Latino immigrants have done so before them.

Among the Bangladais root uniform officers, there are 10 detectives, 82 sergeants, 20 lieutenants and four inspectors, said the SGT. Siddic Ershadur, current president of Bangladesh American Police Association. The uniform ranks of the department are around 38% white, 33% Hispanic, 17% black and almost 12% Asian, according to NYPD data.

“I have never dreamed that I would go so far, but I have always had the ambition to go somewhere where I can be challenged,” said Siddic, now a member of the security detail of the mayor Eric Adams. “I always say,” Listen, give me a chance, see if I can do better than anyone “, you know? Give me a chance. “

Ishmam Chowdhury, a 26 -year -old officer who graduated from the Academy in May, said that the death of Islam just months after his own career had left a lasting impression.

Like the woman of Islam, who awaits her third child, Chowdhury’s wife must give birth to their first.

“It just struck us a little different because it made us think, what happens if it happens to me today? It can,” he said. “So yes, I suppose it is an alarm clock for us that even if it is noble work, we are definitively at serious risks.”

Chowdhury said he dreamed of joining the police before I even immigrated to the United States in 2019. As a teenager in Bangladesh, he and other family members have been stolen on several occasions. The feeling of helplessness and humiliation has remained with him, he said.

Chowdhury began as an unarmed voluntary member of the Auxiliary NYPD before joining the civil ranks as an operator of the 911 in 2021.

He also served about a year in the police forces in Washington, DC, after opening requests to green cards holders in 2023, but he and his wife felt isolated from friends and family. Thus, after having received his citizenship last year, the couple returned to Queens and he signed up for the police academy.

“This is what makes this city, this country, brilliant. No matter where someone comes from,” said Chowdhury. “If someone works really hard and really wants to do something, he can do it.”

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The writer Associated Press Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.

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