Fire Hazard: Should LAFD Get an Internal Affairs Unit?
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We like to think of L.A. firefighters as solid-platinum heroes: They eat smoke, run through burning buildings, gingerly pull people from twisted wrecks and keep saving million-dollar homes that we stupidly build on muddy, brush-covered hillsides.
We don't like to think that any of them are sexist, racist assholes. But unless three firefighters are making it all up, there are some pretty bad people wearing boots and Air-Paks out there ...
Among the recent suits is a case out of a Chatsworth fire station in which a trio of veteran firefighters allege violations of state employment law in connection with "severe and pervasive" harassment.
Plaintiff Brenda Lee joined the department 13 years ago and was in the academy when male personnel created a derogatory "female follies" video that created a scandal in the mid-1990s, according to court papers.
The lawsuit says Lee, an African-American lesbian, experienced racism and homophobia from colleagues and supervisors for years. In an interview this week, Lee said a supervisor told her, "I don't like the way you look, I don't like your lifestyle."
The lawsuit alleges Lee was forced to engage in repeated training drills without proper safety precautions and had her locker ransacked. The complaint charges that supervisors made derogatory comments about gay citizens when they responded to calls at their homes.
Lee's co-plaintiffs are longtime firefighters Gary Mellinger and Steve Bressler, who allege they were discriminated against and harassed because of their age. Bressler also alleges he was harassed because he is a Jehovah's Witness.
The pair said in an interview that they faced retaliation when they reported the harassment against Lee. While Bressler and Mellinger left the department, Lee was put on leave for a minor disciplinary issue after a meeting with department investigators, the lawsuit alleges.
The Daily News says Chief William Bammatre wants $500,000 to set up an independent internal-affairs investigative unit to probe and ultimately banish this kind of institutionalized ugliness - instead of leaving it to fire captains who handle IA duties on a two-year rotation and may go soft on bad firefighters because they'll eventually rotate back alongside them on the fire line.
I'm with him. It's better to spend a little money now than to let frat-boy hate fester in our firehouses, to have interpersonal static weaken camaraderie and performance in life-threatening situations - or to shell out millions more to settle lawsuits for sexual and racial harrassment.
Or would you rather have your out-of-control kitchen fire handled by the LAFD team with a history of race-baited infighting?
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Monday, February 06, 2006 - 09:21 AM
