Minority cops file complaints against NYPD
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BY LUIS PEREZ
STAFF WRITER
December 18, 2004
Charging that their careers were sabotaged in part for failing to meet
departmental quotas, nine black and Latino police officers said yesterday they
are mounting a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city.
A complaint was filed Friday with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission on behalf of the officers, all members of Transit District 4, a
subway-based unit serving central Manhattan.
It comes in the wake of $26.8 million settlement awarded last February to 11,000
Police Department employees who claimed race discrimination in a class-action
suit against the city.
Beginning in 2004, the complaint filed with the EEOC alleges, the officers were
denied paid overtime, left to work outdoor shifts during the Republican National
Convention, and punished for making too few arrests and writing less tickets
than expected.
After they complained to their supervisor, Capt. Ernest Van Glahn, through union
delegates, the officers were required to attend performance enhancement courses
and were disciplined, according to the complaint.
Because of this, the officers said their careers are tainted.
One of the officers, Jackie Robinson, 38, a 12-year veteran, said he and the
other officers had no recourse but to bring the lawsuit.
"One man, on his word, decided to turn my career upside down," Robinson said in
an interview. "There was no appeal process. Whatever my arguments or my opinions
in the matter were, they were not even heard."
The other officers are Emmanuel Bowser, Leon Guzman, Scott Harrison, Frederick
Inman, Charles Panton, Michael Ryan, Jose Martinez and Ronald Saintilus.
Attorneys for the officers said the problems faced by minorities in the Police
Department persist despite February's record settlement.
"It's clear that one lawsuit wasn't enough, and so now we're back," said retired
Sgt. Anthony Miranda, chairman of the National Latino Officers Association.
The suit also is being filed by 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, headed
by co-founder Lt. Eric Adams.
Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, defended the department
in a brief statement.
"The Police Department has had an extremely positive record in this regard,
registering a 23 percent decrease in those types of complaints since 2002,"
Browne said.
One police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the charges are
baseless.
"This supervisor treated his subordinates based upon performance, not race, and
those who didn't like it cried quota," the official said. Norman Siegel, one of
the attorneys defending the officers, said the defendants were willing to hold
off going to federal court if Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner
Ray Kelly act on the officers' concerns.
"They need to speak up; they need to intervene," Siegel said of the mayor and
police commissioner. "If they choose not to do that, we are on a confrontation
course."
Copyright (c) 2004, Newsday, Inc.