City of L.A. Playing Chicken With Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

Mad Professah and other bloggers have been following closely the multiple stories of racial, sexual and sexual orientation discrimination in the Los Angeles Fire Department. The most famous recent case is the Tennie Pierce case. Tennie Pierce is a Black man who was the captain oflived in a fire station where he was served and unwittingly ate dog food. His lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles was on track to be settled for 2.7 million dollars when the agreement was vetoed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last November and the veto was then upheld by the City Council. L.A. Weekly published an interesting take on the Pierce case earlier this summer entitled "What Really Happened in Fire Station 95?" which basically refutes the notion that the infamous "dog food incident" was a racially motivated discriminatory act. However, with Black lesbian firefighter Brenda Lee's recent $6.2 million judgment in her jury trial, there have been published reports that the City Council is rethinking making another settlement offer.

Today, Tuesday September 18, Douglas L. Barry will take the oath of office as the first African American chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Time will tell if a jury will appreciate the guesture enough to innoculate taxpayers from a multi-million dollar payout of city funds to rectify previous racially dubious actions.

UPDATE FRI SEP 21 11:41PM:
In response to a comment from Brian Humphrey (Public Service Officer, Los Angeles Fire Department) I updated the original post to correct factual errors mentioned by Mr. Humphrey. Mad Professah regrets the errors and appreciates the feedback from the LAFD.