Huntington Park : JDL Leader Rubin Demands Resignation of Police Chief

The head of the Jewish Defense League demanded Tuesday that the City Council ask for the resignation of the police chief and two other members of the force in the wake of allegations of anti-Semitism in the department.

Chairman Irv Rubin of the national Defense League referred to a recent discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed against Huntington Park by Detective Alan Tavelman. Named in the suit are Police Chief Frank Sullivan, Capt. Daniel Leili, Sgt. Ronald Beason and former Chief Patrick M. Connolly.

In the suit, Tavelman says he was passed over for promotion to sergeant because of religious discrimination. He was also the target of numerous religious slurs in the nine years with the department, according to the suit, including a newspaper article about the Holocaust left on his desk with “BURN THEM ALL” typewritten on it.

Councilman Thomas E. Jackson was the only official to respond to Rubin’s demand, saying, “No one on this council condones what happened, if it did happen.” He also said this is the first time in his 24 years with the city that he has heard any complaints about the Police Department being racist or anti-Semitic.

None of the current members of the Police Department have commented on the suit, but former Chief Connolly has said that when he was in charge of the department “there was never any tolerance of any racial or ethnic slurs.”