CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / BURBANK
Five police officers have filed a lawsuit against the department and seven current police officials, alleging they allowed a pattern of discrimination and sexual harassment and retaliated against those who complained about it.
The suit, filed Thursday in Superior Court, seeks up to $10 million in damages. It alleges that department officials tolerated an environment in which officers commonly used slurs about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation directed at them, their colleagues, suspects and the public at large.
The plaintiffs allege that officers reported these and other illegal acts to their supervisors, who “threatened, demoted and ordered them to shut up.”
In their suit, the plaintiffs noted that in the nearly 100-year history of the Burbank Police Department, no African American had been promoted above the rank of police officer.
-- Andrew Blankstein
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