Firefighters Complain of Rising Racial Tension

Los Angeles County firefighters complained Tuesday about racial tension in the organization during a monthly union meeting after a recent controversy in which a Carson battalion chief ordered a portrait of John Wayne removed from a station wall.

Some of the firefighters who attended the meeting wore T-shirts with a picture of John Wayne wearing a fire helmet and the words “Save the Duke” emblazoned across the back.

They argued during the closed-door meeting that the Los Angeles County Fire Department has a dual set of standards when it comes to disciplining white and black members and that management plays favorites with certain staff members, said union President Dallas Jones. About 50 members of various ethnic groups, including a few African Americans, attended the meeting.

The members discussed management’s plan to appoint a team to defuse the tension that arose after Battalion Chief Daniel Scott ordered the removal of the picture from a wall of Station No. 116, where it had hung for 20 years. That team will be successful only if an outside panel is appointed, many members told Jones.

“They need to come up with some kind of nonthreatening communications channel that allows our members to voice their concerns confidentially,” Jones said. “If they appoint people from the inside, our members won’t have the confidence in management’s intentions.”