Before he was sparring with his bosses, Brandon Hanks was a viral sensation.
In 2019, Hanks—a 28-year-old Black Syracuse police officer who was once a standout high school guard—showed up at local basketball courts to challenge young kids in the city to one-on-one pickup games. Among other reasons, the bit made waves because Hanks did so while dressed in his full police gear. If the kid won, they’d get a free pair of sneakers. If Hanks won, the kid would be forced to do push-ups.
The cop’s final win-loss record is not clear—Hanks declined to comment for this story, citing his pending legal situation—but he was heralded in the city’s Black community, which like many in America has long had tension with a majority-white police force. The routine also won the department, which has settled lawsuits against officers alleged to have raped a woman while on the job and used excessive force against protesters in recent years, some much needed good press. Hanks’ “Pull Up Challenge” was featured by the CBS Evening News and later caught the attention of NBA guard Rajon Rondo, who donated 25 pairs of sneakers to Hanks, making him something of a local celebrity.
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But in recent weeks, Hanks’ relationship with his employer has soured amid what a review of legal filings and interviews with residents suggest is a swirl of allegations about rap music, profanity, and the cop’s alleged ties to gangs. The episode points to just how quickly a feel-good story about police diversity in America can go wrong.
Last month, Hanks and his attorneys filed a notice-of-claim against the Syracuse Police Department, outlining an alleged “conspiracy” of white officers who made sure he didn’t get a coveted promotion to a gang-violence task force. The filing also argued that Hanks and other Black officers in the department had been subject to a “hostile” and even “Jim Crow” culture, according to copies of two notices-of-claim filed in June and July that were obtained by The Daily Beast.
In an April internal memo submitted by a white police captain, Timothy Gay, that was obtained by The Daily Beast, members of the gang-violence task force Hanks wanted to be promoted to voiced concerns about him. Specifically, they suggested he may have “known associations with gang members and convicted criminals.” Gay is described as going so far as to say Hanks had a tattoo similar to a known gang member's, and claiming that he’d been provided with social-media posts showing alleged gang members asking Hanks about “police-related topics.”
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Hanks’ alleged association with “known gang members” and “convicted criminals” were “cause for concern,” Gay wrote, according to the memo. Gay did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In an amended complaint filed on Saturday, Hanks called the memo “racist and false” and argued it was a fabrication intended to destroy his career.
The city of Syracuse is also named in the filings by Hanks, and Mayor Ben Walsh told The Daily Beast in a statement the city was reviewing the allegations and would respond to them when “all of the facts are considered.” Walsh said he knew Hanks and his community work personally and honored him with an achievement award in 2020.
“The allegations are concerning and hard to read,” the mayor said. “Chief [Kenton] Buckner and I share a firm commitment to ensuring the SPD is a fair and equitable department with its officers and with the community. That is what we are striving for every day.”
But on July 1, days after filing his first complaint against the department, Hanks was reprimanded for violating social-media policies, according to documents obtained by The Daily Beast.
The punishment came in response to a February post by Hanks, in which he was allegedly depicted in uniform while music featuring “racial slang”—the n-word—played in the background. Two other picture uploads from 2020 referenced in the reprimand allegedly used “profane” lyrics in captions. In his latest filing, Hank said the reprimand was “blatant retaliation” for complaining about the “blatantly racist culture within the Syracuse Police Department” and the “vicious and racist attacks” against him.
Jesse Ryder, Hanks’ attorney, also told The Daily Beast the rap music in question was not coming from Hanks’ car at the time. He went on to claim that Police Chief Buckner, who is Black, was aware of this but still chose to allow the discipline as a way to “retaliate” against Hanks for his notice-of-claim.
Ryder declined to specify when his client would be filing a formal lawsuit against the police department. According to the most recent filing, Hanks is pursuing a massive $33 million award for damages, as well as reforms to increase employment opportunities and training for Black officers within the police department.
Buckner, the chief, told The Daily Beast that the reprimand had nothing to do with the genre of music but the “content of the lyrics of the song” and the “racial slurs” being used. He also said the reprimand was decided on before the department ever received their first notice-of-claim from Hanks and his attorneys.
“We’re confident in the decision we made and why we made that decision,” he said, adding that looking through social-media posts is a standard procedure when considering promotions within the department.
In response to Hanks’ allegations of discrimination, Buckner said that as a Black officer himself, he empathized with some of Hanks’ claims.
“Being Black and blue is a real thing,” he said. “It presents challenges for minority officers in a predominantly white profession. It presents challenges for minority officers that are having a significant portion of work done in Black and brown communities. There are times you certainly feel like you’re kind of catching it from both sides of the fence.”
The chief added that he doesn’t agree with the way Hanks has interpreted the discipline but understands the way he feels and views him as an “asset” to the department. Because a lawsuit is pending, Buckner declined to answer more detailed questions but said he was optimistic that the police department and other officers named in Hanks’ notice-of-claim will have an opportunity to hash things out.
“I hope to get to the bottom of this and allow all of the facts to come out in the case so that we can get back to a place where he feels good about his agency,” he said, adding that he was determined to resolve any issues with residents, many of whom have supported Hanks vocally online. “I know that this has kind of been a little bit of a lightning rod moment for our community.”
H. Bernard Alex, a longtime pastor at a local church in the city and the former chair of the Syracuse Citizen Review Board, a local police watchdog group, said he was dismayed by the way Hanks has allegedly been treated—but not necessarily surprised.
“I knew that with his notoriety, with his innovative and creative way to build relationships with the young people in the community, that he was going to get some backlash,” Alex told The Daily Beast.
Hanks grew up with Alex’s oldest daughter, and the pastor said he has known him since he was a child and followed his four-year career in law enforcement closely. He said that while some of the people Hanks grew up with “made poor choices” in life, that shouldn’t reflect badly on Hanks just because they were the people around him. “He did not make those decisions, obviously. He made the force.”
He said the way Hanks engaged the youth in the community through his basketball challenge was novel and something that many people responded to. He recalled young kids in the area intent on playing Hanks.
“They were like, ‘Where is he gonna be today?’ They wanted to play against him,” Alex said.
The pastor added that the challenge was exactly the sort of thing the department needed to be doing to improve their image in the city, particularly with Black residents, given past instances of excessive use of force and a lack of representation.
Chief Buckner, who joined the department as an outside hire in 2018, said that of the 400 officers in the department, only about 10 percent were Black and over 80 percent were white. According to recent census data, Syracuse residents are about 55 percent white and 30 percent Black.
Buckner argued he was well aware that the department needs to be doing more to recruit more officers of color. “We’re nowhere near the percentage that’s reflected in our community and we certainly are working on that,” he said.
But Alex said the scrutiny of Hanks, despite the national acclaim he’s brought the department for building relationships, isn’t helping that effort.
“They are penalizing him,” Alex said, “for doing what they want to happen. They want to build relationships. They want to build bridges. And now it’s like, I’m doing that but you’re telling me that’s wrong.”
He said he believes Hanks has proven himself to be invested in changing the image of the police department and that he was the perfect vehicle because Hanks still understands what it is like to be policed in the community and has their respect.
“He really was that guy that was trying to pull in that young group that is still making the decision on how they will feel about police or a career in policing,” Alex said, arguing that the only way the police department’s diversity numbers will ever change is to “grow our own” and change the perception of the department.
“Brandon was really the one that was planting those seeds.”
