Pubdate: Thu, 18 Dec 2003
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2003 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Carol D. Leonnig
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

OFFICERS SAY RACE AFFECTED ASSIGNMENTS

Eight officers accuse the District and the Metropolitan Police Department 
in a new lawsuit of breaking up their canine squad because most of the 
squad's officers were white and top police leaders feared a public 
relations problem if the media learned that fact.

The officers claim that the department brass illegally reorganized all the 
canine squads specifically because of the racial makeup of Squad 2 and that 
they suggested to other officers that the members of Squad 2 were racist. 
The lawsuit contends that the reorganization actions taken by Cmdr. Cathy 
Lanier, and directed by Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, were "racially 
motivated" and unfair because none of the officers was accused of improper 
police work or inappropriate handling of the dogs.

"The department . . . has specifically stated that the reorganization was 
implemented because of the 'perception' Squad 2 would present should 
something happen with one of the plaintiffs and the media were to find out 
about its racial composition," says the officers' lawsuit, filed Dec. 9 in 
U.S. District Court.

Those suing are the leader of Squad 2, Sgt. James E. Ginger, and officers 
Paul E. Hustler, Sean S. LaGrand, Michael J. Lewis, Roy Potter, Bernard D. 
Richardson, Mark W. Wood and Robert M. Wigton. LaGrand is black; the other 
seven officers are white.

Sgt. Joe Gentile, spokesman for the police department, said the department 
cannot comment on pending lawsuits.

The reorganization occurred in March, around the time that an independent 
monitor, who had been asked by the District and the Justice Department to 
analyze the department's use of force, reported some improvements in the 
canine units but also noted lingering problems with police dogs biting 
suspects. The monitor's analysis found that 11 of the 17 dog bites in 2002 
involved dogs handled by Squad 2.

In the suit, the eight officers allege that the department had determined 
that all the dog bites were justified, and they note that Squad 2 was 
likely to have more activity because its officers worked the night shift in 
high-crime areas.

Lanier was quoted as defending the canine unit's performance in an article 
about the monitor's findings that appeared in The Washington Post in May. 
The unit was broken up anyway, the officers claim, and their department 
leaders "warned that adverse action would be taken against them if they did 
not quietly accept what was taking place," according to the lawsuit.

The officers claim the department retaliated against them when they filed 
an equal employment opportunity complaint in April. Retaliation, they say, 
included "unwarranted investigations" of their work and their being forced 
to accept "oppressive scheduling."

The lawsuit contends that department leaders created a hostile, harassing 
work environment for Squad 2 officers "by telling their fellow officers 
that the plaintiffs, because their unit was allegedly 'too white' and had 
engaged in racial misconduct, were the cause" of the reorganization of all 
canine units. The officers claim in the lawsuit that other officers placed 
drawings of Ku Klux Klan members in their lockers and gave them "heil 
Hitler" salutes as they passed.

"They were subjected to all sorts of mistreatment, just because the police 
department singled them out and suggested they were racists," said Gregory 
Lattimer, the attorney representing the officers.
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