Maine: Muslim police officer put on leave, charged with five misdemeanors, including assault and battery

The appointment of Zahra Munye Abu to the Portland, Maine police force was a lauded police first, like the hiring in Minneapolis of police officer Mohamed Noor, who killed an unarmed pajama-clad woman, Justine Damond, for no reason that has ever been disclosed (he refuses to talk, and apparently for Minneapolis authorities that is the end of the matter, and he will not be charged).

These Muslims were put on police forces because they were Muslim, not because they were competent officers. And it is the public that pays the price. The police should be chosen on merit, not so as to pander to a pressure group. Mohamed Noor and Zahra Munye Abu never should have been police officers in the first place. All police hiring based on race or religion rather than on competence ought to be ended immediately.

“Portland police officer whose hiring made history is put on leave after arrest in Massachusetts,” by Matt Byrne, Press Herald, January 16, 2018:

A 24-year-old Portland police officer has been charged with five misdemeanors, including assault and battery, after being arrested Saturday night at a concert venue in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Worcester police said Zahra Munye Abu, of Portland, is also facing charges of trespassing, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

Abu caused a disturbance while attending a Ja Rule and Ashanti concert at the Palladium Nightclub on Main Street, said Worcester police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst.

“The nightclub was hosting several live musical acts,” Hazelhurst said in an email. “She was (given) several opportunities to leave and refused. Eventually she was placed under arrest.”

Worcester police would not provide more details about the incident, and members of Abu’s family declined to comment when contacted by phone at their home.

Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said Abu has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending a review of the matter….

Abu is a high-profile member of the Portland police force because she is the first member of Maine’s Somali immigrant community to become a police officer in Maine.

She was born to Somali parents in a Kenyan refugee camp and has lived in Portland since she was 2 years old. She graduated from Deering High School in Portland and studied criminal justice and women-and-gender issues at the University of Southern Maine.

If convicted, Abu faces a maximum penalty of up to 2½ years in a county jail on the assault and battery and the resisting arrest charges. Each of the other charges include less severe maximum penalties.