Black Officers’ Suit Accuses Police Union of ‘White Supremacy’ : LAPD: Minority organization says its members have been denied services that are granted to whites. The union denies the charge.

An association of African American police officers on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the union that represents Los Angeles Police Department officers, accusing the union of being a “bastion of white supremacy” that discriminated against black officers.

The Oscar Joel Bryant Assn.’s lawsuit against the Police Protective League is the latest step in an escalation of hostilities, ranging from disagreements over the union’s criticism of Police Chief Willie L. Williams to the union’s effort to subsidize a challenge of LAPD affirmative action programs by white officers.

Standing on the steps of the Downtown federal courthouse, Leonard Ross, president of the 500-member Bryant association, accused the 7,700-member league of routinely denying representation services to black officers that are provided to white officers.

“They are the gatekeepers of oppression and racism in the LAPD,” Ross said.

The Police Protective League has had its own gripes with the black officers’ association--especially with Ross, who infuriated the union’s officials earlier this year by calling former detective Mark Fuhrman, a key prosecution witness in the O.J. Simpson trial, a racist.

Union officials, caught off guard by the Bryant association’s action, denied the charges outlined in the 10-page lawsuit.

“I don’t know what the hell they are talking about here, honestly,” said Hank Hernandez, the league’s general counsel. “The accusations are baseless and we are looking forward to an aggressive defense.”

Hernandez said the league plans to show the “outstanding job that this organization has shown throughout the years for minority officers of the Police Department.”

Members of the Bryant association contend that the complaints with the department run deep. The association has accused the league of squandering millions of dollars in membership funds in a futile defense of former Officers Stacey C. Koon and Laurence M. Powell, who are serving time in federal prison for violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights during the 1991 beating of King.

“The league rushes to champion causes for white officers who prey on the black community . . . while brazenly refusing to provide even minimal assistance to deserving black officers,” the lawsuit claims.

For example, Ross said, the league has refused to provide legal representation for a black officer accused by the police department of illegally distributing sensitive information to the public.

Ross complained that the union further alienated black officers by giving $27,000 to a group of white male officers to fund their legal challenge to an LAPD affirmative action program. Hernandez denied the allegation.

A longstanding area of contention has been the failure of the league to elect an African American to its nine-member board of directors--a signal that the league sees blacks as outsiders even though they make up roughly 15% of the force, Ross said.

“It’s not a family,” he said. “It’s just blue, black and white.”

League officials say that directors are elected by the membership. But that response was not enough to satisfy association members, especially after the board recently decided--without an election--to replace a retiring member with a white female officer.

Not long ago, the two groups displayed their opposing viewpoints in the endorsement of different candidates in the tense 10th District City Council race between Stan Sanders and incumbent Nate Holden. The association endorsed Sanders and criticized Holden--who, like Sanders, is black--for not condemning the Police Protective League for its stance on affirmative action. The union endorsed Holden, who won.

Ross’ attack on Fuhrman came on a national television show in the midst of Simpson defense allegations that the detective was part of a conspiracy to frame Simpson. The police union responded by criticizing Ross in the union’s newspaper. Ross said union officials subsequently canceled a meeting called to iron out differences between the two groups.

Hernandez disagreed that the union canceled. “Some directors were planning to attend a meeting but then they had other more important things to take care of.”