Fire station anti-Semitism alleged

Acting Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas L. Barry eclipsed his own news conference about his first 100 days Tuesday by announcing that he had just learned of a new report of possible firefighter harassment.

But city officials said that Barry’s swift launch of investigations into the allegation of anti-Semitism at a fire station, and another case disclosed last week, were a better demonstration than a speech about reforms being underway.

After the news conference, Fire Commissioner Genethia Hudley-Hayes said the fact that firefighters immediately reported the alleged incidents indicates that attitudes about hazing and harassment may be changing among the department’s 4,165 employees.

Other city officials at the news conference agreed. “What you’re seeing now is a Fire Department where the system has worked,” said City Councilman Jack Weiss. “The facts have come forward” and the reports are “being investigated very soon after the incidents.”

Barry learned of the new incident only minutes before his news conference at downtown’s Fire Station No. 3 and was quickly besieged by the media.

Stephen E. Norris, second vice president of the firefighters union, said the episode happened at a station in the Pico-Fairfax District and involved “some kind of song played loudly that had a reference to Passover.”

“It could be rumor at this point,” Norris said after the news conference. “I don’t know even if the firefighter is Jewish, or what the [nature of the offense] would be considered in that incident.”

In recent months the Fire Department has been besieged with accusations of harassment and hazing.

On Friday, the department said it was investigating allegations that an African American firefighter’s locker was broken into, a banana left inside and his clothing doused with white lotion. The LAPD is providing technical assistance, such as checking the locker for fingerprints, police officials said.

One week earlier, an L.A. jury awarded $1.7 million to a former city firefighter who said he was the victim of retaliation for helping a black female firefighter who had accused the department of discrimination.

And in December, Fire Chief William Bamattre resigned after a number of discrimination allegations against the department. The case that drew the most attention involves a lawsuit by Tennie Pierce, a black firefighter who said he was fed dog food by other firefighters at a Westchester station in 2004. The City Council’s $2.7-million settlement with Pierce was vetoed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after photos surfaced of Pierce participating in pranks. His lawsuit has not gone to trial.

When Villaraigosa named Barry interim fire chief Dec. 3, he gave him a daunting but clear assignment: Rid the department of harassment, hazing and discrimination.

Observers say altering an institution’s culture is not something Barry can be expected to accomplish in a little more than three months on the job.

But flanked by members of the department’s union and of groups representing African American, Latino and female firefighters at the news conference, Barry said he put out the word that harassment would not be tolerated.

“As part of the initial steps of reform,” Barry said, “I have been personally visiting every fire station and other work locations to outline to the members of the department my expectations of behavior and to foster a partnership with them in addressing our organizational challenges.”

He has not yet visited the stations where the two recent cases were reported.

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nancy.wride@latimes.com