Thomas Strain, White Police Officer in Philadelphia's 35 District, Ordered to Cut Cornrows

Thomas Strain, a police officer in the 35th District of Philadelphia, was put on desk duty for breaking the rules. You would think that he may have shot a suspect or have been accused of police brutality, right? Well, he was ordered off the streets for wearing cornrows. You read right -- cornrows. Media reports said he was placed on desk duty for two days until he cut his braids off. The dust-up occurred when he reported for work September 3 with the hairstyle, he was pulled out of roll call and taken to the Inspector Aaron Horne's office. You would think that since Philadelphia has high crime rates, the last thing they would worry about was a white man wearing cornrows. His superiors did not feel that his cornrows were professional. The problem is that it seems the rules do not apply to black male officers with cornrows. It is my opinion that neither white, black men or any men for that matter, should be allowed to wear cornrows in a professional setting.

Officer Thomas Strain, (QtheQuestion)

Police policy requires officers to have "clean, properly trimmed and combed hair" that doesn't prevent them from wearing their uniform hat "in a military-manner," Lt. Frank Vanore said. The policy prohibits "unnatural" hair colors such as blue, purple or green but doesn't ban specific styles, such as cornrows, mohawks, dreadlocks or bouffants.

This isn't the first time an officer's appearance has caused commotion in the 35th District. Officer Kimberlie Webb in 2005 sued the city and the police department after she was barred from wearing a hijab, or Muslim head scarf, on the job. A federal appeals court last April upheld the department's policy, saying religious garb imperils the department's appearance of "religious neutrality."

Two officers in Dallas in 2001 claimed they lost their jobs because they refused to cut off their dreadlocks. A Dallas police spokesman said those officers were fired for other disciplinary reasons unrelated to hairstyle.

Strain, a former Marine who served in Iraq, got a bum rap from his superiors. If you don't want him to wear cornrows, then the policy must go for all male police officers, not just the white ones. I don't understand what Mr. Strain was trying to prove by wearing cornrows, but he looked ridiculous. In any case, there are far more important issues for the police department in Philadelphia to worry about -- high crimes rates, for example.