LAPD Officer Alleges Discrimination by Black Cadre

A Los Angeles police officer is suing the city, alleging he was transferred out of his unit and denied promotions after he complained about being excluded from a meeting that he was told was only for black officers.

Officer Luis H. Garcia filed the retaliation suit Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He seeks unspecified damages.

A spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a call for comment today. A spokesperson for the department said it’s against policy to comment on ongoing litigation.

The suit states that Garcia is not black, but it does not divulge his ethnicity. According to the complaint, he has been a member of the LAPD since 2006 and he was assigned to the department’s recruitment and employment division in 2013.

In August 2013, Garcia inquired about a number of fellow officers in his unit who were black and were departing the office to go somewhere, according to the complaint. When he checked further, he found out that the other officers were headed to a meeting that had been announced by an email sent by Sgt. Cassandra Britt-Nickerson, according to the complaint.

When Garcia asked Britt-Nickerson why he had not been told about the meeting, she replied it was an “African-American-only meeting, or words to that effect,” the suit states.

Britt-Nickerson told Garcia to answer the phones while the other officers were gone, the suit states.

Garcia found out the following week that Capt. Anita Ortega had ordered that the meeting be held among black LAPD members only and that “if anyone had a problem with it, they should speak to her about it,” the suit states.

Both Ortega and Britt-Nickerson are black, the suit states.

Within weeks of his complaints Garcia’s supervisors and colleagues began to ostracize him, according to this complaint. He also began to receive critical comments about trivial issues, actions that he believes were in retaliation for his coming forward, the suit states.

A new lieutenant was transferred to Garcia’s unit in February 2014, the suit states. Within the first month of the lieutenant’s arrival he called the plaintiff into his office and asked him “what his problem was with the all- African-American meeting,” the suit states.

The new lieutenant also began to “nitpick plaintiff for minor issues” until March 2015, the suit states. The suit does not state the lieutenant’s race.

The suit states that Garcia was denied about four promotions even though he was the most qualified candidate. He resisted Ortega’s pressures to transfer voluntarily out of the unit, so she moved him out against his will in March 2015, the suit states.

Even though Garcia is no longer in his old unit, he continues to be subjected to retaliation by way of barriers to career advancements as well as lost overtime and other benefits, the suit alleges.

City News Service