6 Black Police Officers Sue Santa Monica, Allege Bias

Six black police officers filed suit Friday against the City of Santa Monica, alleging that the Police Department has fired or failed to promote blacks and other minorities because of racial bias.

Five of the police officers currently work on the Santa Monica force and the sixth worked there for nine months before he was fired in 1986.

The suit alleges that the officers have been exposed to racist slurs and cartoons and have been denied promotions or assignments to special details because of their race.

The “widespread and continuing pattern and practice of discrimination” by Santa Monica constitutes a violation of the plaintiffs’ civil rights, the suit charges.

One of Four Actions

The lawsuit, filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, is one of four legal actions sponsored by a group of mostly black and Asian police officers from several suburban cities who have formed an organization to fight discrimination in law enforcement agencies.

The coalition, called Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, is led by Sgt. Don Jackson of the Hawthorne Police Department. On Jan. 28, Jackson filed suit in Torrance Superior Court against the Hawthorne Police Department, where he has worked since 1982, claiming unspecified monetary damages because of alleged racially motivated intimidation and harassment.

Glendale has also been named in one discrimination suit and another is being threatened, lawyer Raymond Boucher said.

Retaliation Cited

Often officers who complain suffer retaliation from their superiors, Boucher said.

Santa Monica Police Chief James Keane, named as a defendant with nine other officers, and City Atty. Robert Myers declined to comment on the suit.

In the past, Keane and other city officials have defended the department’s affirmative-action program as one of the most aggressive in the county.

Jackson, two Santa Monica officers and six officers or former officers from other departments appeared at a news conference Thursday to announce the lawsuits. They said they decided to sue only after police and city officials “turned a deaf ear” to the problem.

“We are told we have to be thick-skinned . . . (that) we have to learn to take it, to accept it, or get out of law enforcement,” said Santa Monica Officer Henry McCray, who is currently on stress-related leave from the department.

Racist Material

McCray and Jackson said it is common practice in their departments for fellow officers to post racist literature and drawings on lockers or bulletin boards and to insult blacks.

“This translates into action against minorities in the streets,” Jackson said.

Eleven officers in Santa Monica’s 151-member force are black. The highest-ranking black is a sergeant.

The suit seeks punitive damages in excess of $100,000, general damages, back pay and the establishment of a watchdog committee to monitor affirmative-action policies.

Last year, Santa Monica hired a consultant to study alleged racism in the department. The consultant held “cultural awareness” seminars and issued a report in December saying that while racially motivated problems exist, racism does not “permeate” the system.

The report recommended appointment of an ombudsman and changes in the formula used to promote officers. The city has accepted the recommendations.

However, Boucher said, the report “only scratches the surface” of the problem at Santa Monica. Jackson vowed to target other police departments throughout the county.