Exterior the Bronx mosque the place a New York Metropolis police officer was eulogized final week, a bunch of officers of their formal navy blue uniforms solemnly hung a banner bearing the younger officer’s {photograph} and the title of his fraternity, the Bangladeshi American Police Affiliation.
Didarul Islam — considered one of 4 individuals killed within the July 28 capturing on the Manhattan workplace tower housing the NFL’s headquarters — was the NYPD’s first Bangladeshi American officer killed within the line of obligation.
His funeral underscored the fertile recruiting floor the division has discovered within the metropolis’s thriving Bangladeshi neighborhood. Greater than 1,000 of the NYPD’s roughly 33,000 uniformed members are Bangladeshi Individuals, based on the affiliation. One other 1,500 individuals of Bangladeshi heritage are among the many division’s 19,000 civilian workers.
These numbers are up from only a handful of officers a couple of many years in the past, a phenomenon some Bangladeshi officers attribute partly to their very own patriotic response to anti-Muslim sentiment after the 9/11 assaults, in addition to lively recruitment and word-of-mouth locally.
Among the many sea of NYPD officers who lined the road to honor Islam, 36, had been some who opted for conventional South Asian apparel, their police badges worn round their necks. Many joined the throngs of mourners who knelt on the street in prayer.
“He actually uplifted our community in a way that was not imaginable before,” mentioned Shamsul Haque, one of many co-founders of the NYPD’s Bangladeshi officers’ group. “His legacy will endure not only as a hero who gave his life protecting others, but also as a symbol of hope, integrity and the American dream.”
NYPD Officer Didarul Islam was given a dignified switch to a Bronx mosque, with burial plans later in New Jersey. Officer Islam was amongst three others shot and killed on the Park Avenue workplace constructing, together with a safety guard, a Blackstone government, and a Rudin Administration worker. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst, Gus Rosendale, Lynda Baquero and Chris Glorioso have workforce protection.
Bangladeshi immigrants be a part of NYPD following Sept. 11 terror assaults
When Haque joined the NYPD in 2004, he was considered one of only a few Bangladeshi immigrants. Lots of those that joined round then needed to dispel the notion that each one Muslims had been terrorist sympathizers, he mentioned.
Haque, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1991, had just lately graduated school with a enterprise administration diploma when the dual towers fell. However relatively than observe his friends right into a monetary discipline, he enrolled within the police academy, a call he acknowledged was initially met with skepticism from his dad and mom.
Within the aftermath of 9/11, the NYPD constructed up a home surveillance program that for years systematically spied on Muslim communities and monitored native companies, mosques and pupil teams in a hunt for terror cells.
Haque, 52, who retired earlier this yr after turning into the primary South Asian and first Muslim to achieve the rank of lieutenant commander within the NYPD, mentioned the notion of Muslims amongst rank-and-file members has improved.
Early in his profession, he recalled feeling singled out when a counterterrorism knowledgeable warned officers throughout a coaching session about the opportunity of al-Qaida operatives infiltrating the pressure.
“Over the years, people started to realize that we work hard, we are ethical,” Haque mentioned. “Although we are immigrants, we are patriotic.”
Path to NYPD badge begins with civilian police jobs
To develop their numbers, Haque and others went out into the neighborhood proselytizing a smart path for just lately arrived immigrants.
Aspiring Bangladeshi officers had been inspired to take civilian jobs within the division, corresponding to site visitors enforcement officers and college security brokers, that don’t require U.S. citizenship. After gaining citizenship, normally in about 5 years, they may then apply for the police academy to change into a uniformed officer.
Some 60% of all officers of Bangladeshi heritage within the NYPD adopted this pipeline, Haque estimated. Islam, the officer killed final week, started his profession as a college security officer after immigrating to the U.S. about 16 years in the past.
The seen progress of Bangladeshis within the NYPD has helped many aspire to management roles within the division, simply as generations of Irish, Italian and Latino immigrants did earlier than them.
Among the many uniformed officers with Bangladeshi roots are 10 detectives, 82 sergeants, 20 lieutenants and 4 inspectors, mentioned Sgt. Ershadur Siddique, present president of the Bangladeshi American Police Affiliation. The division’s uniformed ranks are roughly 38% white, 33% Hispanic, 17% Black and almost 12% Asian, based on NYPD knowledge.
“I never dreamt that I would go this far, but I always had an ambition to go somewhere where I can be challenged,” mentioned Siddique, now a member of Mayor Eric Adams’ safety element. “I always say, ‘Listen, give me a chance, see if I can do better than anybody else,’ you know? Give me a chance.”
Younger officer displays on capturing
Ishmam Chowdhury, a 26-year-old officer who graduated from the academy in Might, mentioned Islam’s dying only a few months into his personal profession has left an enduring impression.
Like Islam’s spouse, who’s anticipating their third little one, Chowdhury’s spouse is because of give delivery to their first quickly.
“It just hit us a little different because like that made us think, what if it happens to me today? It can,” he mentioned. “So yeah, I guess that’s a wake-up call for us that even though this is a noble job, we are definitely at grave risk.”
Chowdhury mentioned he dreamed of becoming a member of regulation enforcement even earlier than he immigrated to the U.S. in 2019. As a youngster in Bangladesh, he and different members of the family had been robbed a number of instances. The sensation of helplessness and humiliation caught with him, he mentioned.
Chowdhury began as an unarmed volunteer member of the NYPD auxiliary earlier than becoming a member of the civilian ranks as a 911 operator in 2021.
He additionally served a couple of yr within the police pressure in Washington, D.C., after it opened functions to inexperienced card holders in 2023, however he and his spouse felt remoted from family and friends. So after receiving his citizenship final yr, the couple moved again to Queens and he enrolled within the police academy.
“That’s what makes this city, this country, great. It doesn’t matter where somebody comes from,” Chowdhury mentioned. “If somebody really works hard and truly wants to do something, they can do it.”
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Related Press author Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.
