5 Armenian Officers Sue Glendale Police Department for Discrimination
Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 16:27 Written by HyeSpace Tuesday, 26 January 2010 16:06
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Four Armenian officers and one former officer have filed a joint lawsuit against the Glendale Police Department, alleging years of discrimination, derogatory comments and harassment because of their race.
Officers John Balian and Robert Parseghian; Sgts. Vahak Mardikian and Tigran Topadzhikyan; and former Officer Benny Simonzad filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, alleging myriad on-the-job discrimination and harassment incidents.
When confronted with complaints of the discrimination, command staff failed to respond, according to the federal lawsuit.
City Atty. Scott Howard on Monday rebuffed the claims made in the lawsuit.
“There are many allegations in the complaint, which are absolutely, utterly false,” he said.
In the lawsuit, officers claim they were subjected to derogatory racial comments, and were told that they were being watched closely because of their race.
Simonzad, who claims he faced discrimination on the job, was fired in 2008, but sued to get his job back.
They also allege that Armenian suspects are over-charged by fellow officers who have made many numerous disparaging comments about Armenians and the Armenian community they are supposed to serve and protect.
They allege failures to promote, continuous harassment and ultimately retaliation against them when they spoke out against the discriminatory practices, according to the lawsuit.abuses practices against themselves and the general public.
The five officers, who cumulatively have worked for the Glendale Police Department for over 40 years, allege continuous direct discriminatory and
A call for comment to the Glendale City Attorney's Office was not returned yesterday.
"That a police department in the heart of this Armenian community employs only 15 Armenian officers out of its approximate 270 person workforce is statistically outrageous," the attorney said. "The odds that this occurred without any discriminatory intent is statistically impossible."
The city of Glendale is home to about 198,000 people, roughly half of whom are of Armenian descent, he said.
"In this day and age, it's remarkable the Glendale Police Department has allowed itself to systemically discriminate against an ethnic group that, in large part, fled their homelands to avoid ethic persecution," said Carney Shegerian, the Santa Monica-based lawyer who filed the suit.
The lawsuit also alleges that Armenian civilians have been consistently mistreated by this police department responsible for policing Glendale.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week, alleges "systemic and continuous discriminatory, harassing and retaliatory conduct based on ethnicity" by the Glendale Police Department.Five Glendale police officers of Armenian background have filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles, alleging discrimination and harassment by the Glendale Police Department, an employee rights law firm announced today.
Sources: Los Angeles Daily News, Glendale News Press