A U.S. district court in Michigan has dismissed a lawsuit filed by three white male police officers against the Michigan State Police Department. The officers—Robert Hahn, Michael Caldwell and Michael McCormick—claimed they were discriminated against because of their race and sex. The men, who had been with the force since 1990, said that the department’s director colonel, Joe Gasper, made an announcement in 2019 that the department was “way too white and way too male” and created an initiative to increase diversity. The trio said that when they spoke out about affirmative action, one officer was demoted and another was fired. But an internal police probe found that the two were punished for violating departmental policy about the promotion process. Federal Judge Robert J. Jonker said there was no evidence that the diversity initiative had anything to do with the professional trajectory of the officers.
