Racial Tension in S.F. Fire Stations Nears Flash Point

SAN FRANCISCO — There were no fires for the men of Station 16 to fight Saturday morning. There were no cats to be rescued from trees. If the trucks needed polishing, no one seemed much interested.

It was a quiet morning and that was good, for the men of Station 16 were in an unsettled mood. The day before, all 28 regulars of the Marina District firehouse had been ordered transferred to other stations--a housecleaning that came after no one would confess to squirting glue in the office door keyhole of the station’s black fire inspector.

The incident received widespread attention, as it was the latest piece of fuel to be tossed on a public firestorm over alleged racism within the 1,500-member department. In rapid succession over the last three weeks, a swastika was found in a station house office, a federal judge described the department as a fraternity “out of control” and the chief resigned.

Scandal Divides Ranks

The scandal, seemingly incongruous in a city with a national reputation for liberal politics and ethnic diversity, has divided ranks within the department and tarnished its reputation without. San Francisco used to erect monuments such as Coit Tower to firefighters. Now, firefighters say, citizens jeer at them and make obscene gestures.

“It puts me on edge,” Neil Morrison, who has spent half of his 10 years as a firefighter assigned to Station 16, was saying Saturday morning. “It used to be, people admired you. They would stop us on the street and say, ‘Oh, we love you guys.’ People respected you.

“Now,” he went on, “we’re being made to look like a bunch of jerks.”

The recruitment and promotion of minority firefighters has festered as an issue here for about 15 years, producing a long and tangled trail of as yet unresolved litigation.

Minority firefighters contend that the department for generations has been a clannish organization, dominated by whites who help steer their sons and grandsons into jobs and up the promotion ladder. They complain of racial harassment ranging from misguided pranks to overt threats, and say the numbers--roughly five white firefighters for every minority group member in a city with a minority population of more than 50%--speak for themselves.

Whites Frustrated

Most white firefighters maintain that allegations of racism are overblown. Some even suggest they are raised by minorities as a way to end-run the department’s traditional merit system. They say also that it is not the department that designs and administers tests for hiring and promotions but the city’s Civil Service Department. And they are frustrated because legal challenges have stalled their promotions.

The latest round of acrimony began early this month, when a swastika mounted on a wooden plaque turned up at a downtown firehouse in an office used by a black firefighter and a Jewish firefighter. The same firehouse had been the scene nearly two years ago of a racially motivated fistfight that ultimately led to the fire chief’s resignation.

The swastika reportedly was presented to a department officer at an awards banquet several years ago. How it came to its final destination is a subject of intense speculation within the department.

“I guess the point was just what the Nazi’s represented--hatred,” said Fire Lt. Robert Demmons, head of the 75-member Black Firefighters Assn. “In my opinion, you don’t joke with guys like that.”

The swastika was among incidents referred to by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, who has jurisdiction over a federal discrimination case involving the Fire Department, when she blasted department officials in court on Jan. 14.

“What has happened here,” she said, “is that the department is out of control with respect to its treatment of minority members. . . .

‘It’s an Embarrassment’

“This is not a fraternity,” Patel scolded Chief Edward Phipps. “It is the Fire Department. . . . It’s an embarrassment that the actions of some have held the city and county of San Francisco up to conduct that I thought went out of existence 20, 40 years ago. . . . And this is not the conduct of just a few. . . . Unfortunately, some of this conduct has been institutionalized and accepted within the institution.”

Patel called on the FBI to investigate the swastika incident and warned fire officials that they could be jailed if racial harassment was not stopped.

The next day, Phipps resigned, saying that newly elected Mayor Art Agnos should have an opportunity to select his own chief. A search is under way, and representatives of minority firefighters are urging Agnos to select someone from outside the department.

The glue was discovered the following Monday in the office door keyhole at Station 16, and Michael Farrell, the interim chief installed in Phipps’ absence, delivered an ultimatum: If no one came forward by noon Friday and accepted culpability, he would scatter the entire firehouse crew. No one did, and Farrell announced the transfers, effective Monday.

Time to Squirm

And so on Saturday, it was Station 16’s turn to squirm in the spotlight of notoriety.

“Here today, gone tomorrow,” was written across the firehouse chalkboard, and there was gallows humor about garage sales. The interim chief’s ultimatum was posted on the bulletin board.

Not all the men wanted to talk. “You don’t want to say something you can be held liable for,” one black firefighter said. When a reporter wrote that comment down, he grew angry and walked away. And when another firefighter, also black, started to answer questions, the first dispatched him on some unexplained errand.

Those who did talk said it was unfortunate that Station 16 was being made an example for the rest of the department. The station house has nearly an even mix of whites and minorities.

Like ‘Fun and Games’

“This house is the most integrated house in the Fire Department,” said Morrison, who has been stationed there for five years. “As far back as I’ve been here, there has never been a standoff. We pull pranks, but we do it face to face. We like to have fun and games against one another.”

In other station houses, black firefighters have provided differing descriptions of what white firefighters often dismiss as pranks. In interviews and court documents, they have told of Confederate flags hanging from firehouse walls, of a cut of steak commonly being referred to as “nigger’s butts,” of cartoons depicting black South Africans getting blown apart posted with warnings on the lockers of black firefighters.

Many of these actions, some say, are motivated by white firefighters’ frustration over successful challenges to the legality of promotion tests, which have stalled the advancement of about 80 firefighters to lieutenant.

“Right now, it’s being exposed,” said Tyrone Rockett, a black who is a 14-year veteran of the department. “They’ve been told it’s not a white boys’ social club anymore, and they are resisting. They don’t want to do it.”

Many Live in Suburbs

Rockett and others pointed out that a majority of the department’s white firefighters no longer live in the racially mixed city. “These guys live out in the suburbs. . . . They take these $40,000-a-year jobs and then go home to the suburbs and talk about gooks.”

James T. Ferguson, president of Local 798 of the firefighters’ union, cast the dispute in a completely different light. His union represents mostly white firefighters and has challenged a proposed court settlement as unfair.

To Ferguson and, votes would indicate, the local’s membership, the issue is not one of racism. Rather, it is one of minorities attempting to overturn a traditional system of basing promotions on experience and test results.

In his office, he produced a long computerized list of rankings based on the latest disputed battery of promotion tests. Nearly all the top finishers were white and had taken all the training courses offered by the department.

“People that studied and took all the courses did well,” he said pointedly.

Divided on Solutions

Opinions differ as to what will ease the crisis and bring long-term solutions. Some of those involved believe that institution of a consent decree that effectively would allow the courts to monitor hiring and promotion practices is the only solution. Others, including former Fire Chief Andrew Casper, believe that the chief needs to be given more power; currently, the chief’s personnel actions are governed tightly by Civil Service regulations. Many white firefighters say that, while current acrimony might settle quickly, there will be underlying tension until the promotion questions are resolved.

So far, white and minority firefighters alike believe that the quality of service provided to the public in all parts of the city has not suffered because of the racial controversy.

“When the bell rings, we roll,” said one white fire official. “Fires are still being fought, babies are still being delivered, cats are still being taken out of the trees. That part of our activity goes on.”

Times researcher Norma Kaufman also contributed to this story.