Former Massachusetts State Police recruit says he was hazed, harassed at academy
BOSTON - For a former Massachusetts State Police recruit, photos showing him wearing an academy uniform are all that's left of his dream. Giovani JN Baptiste tells the I-Team that it's sad, since he came to this country, he has always wanted to be a state trooper.
The state police dismissed the Haitian immigrant from the academy six weeks before graduation. Enrique Delgado-Garcia was his carpool buddy and his classmate. Delgado-Garcia died last week after sources say he was seriously injured during a boxing training exercise. "Delgado was a really, really good kid helping me, helping everybody," Baptiste said.
Former recruit alleges hazing, harassment
He does not know what happened to his friend, but says he was subjected to hazing and harassment from the second week of training. "For people like me or people like Delgado, Spanish or Black, it's really hard," the former recruit told the I-Team. "They make it really hard for you."
Hard because, he says, he was picked on nearly every day, starting first thing in the morning when instructors would have the other trainees go to his room and yell "go home."
"Imagine like 180 people telling you go home; you know go home you don't deserve to be here," Baptiste said. "It was a lot for me."
An Army Reservist, he survived boot camp and four years in the military. But he says the State Police Academy experience was more like a college fraternity hazing instead of elite law enforcement training. Telling the I-Team, he was told to lay on the floor on his stomach in uniform and sweep the floor using his body. "Trooper telling me he would do everything in his power, to not graduate, because I don't deserve to be here," Baptiste said.
Counting bricks while other trainees slept
Instructors gave him sweatpants and a red marker to color in his whole pair of pants. They also gave him a notebook and told him to count all the bricks on the wall. Activities that would take him nearly all night while other trainees slept.
"I know before the academy, I heard you had to be mentally prepared, physically prepared. I was physically and mentally prepared. I was prepared for training I wasn't prepared for that stuff," he told the I-Team.
His young family sacrificed for weeks so he could realize his dream. His wife, a mental health professional, is also in the military.
"We came here for him to want to do better, and you get there, and you're faced with being humiliated, being discriminated," his wife said. "You're being put down to a level you have never experienced before. Training is training. I'm in the military. I know boot camp, training is training. You have to teach your trainees how to protect themselves out there. But there's nowhere it says in the book that you need to break someone down so low to where they can't study, they can't pass a commonsense exam."
His last day at the academy was August 23rd. He still remembers what Delgado said when he dropped him off. "I know what you have been going through. For 18 weeks. You're OK. I hope you are going to take care of your life and everything," Baptiste said.
WBZ reached out to the Massachusetts State Police for comment but did not hear back.