A small town in the shadow of a volcano in Washington state is simmering with racial tensions over a fired African-American police officer’s claims of discrimination.
Gerry Pickens, 28, alleges he suffered racist jokes, different treatment from the entirely white rest of the force and an undeserved dismissal at the end of his first-year probationary period with the Orting Police Department last year, The Washington Post reported.
Vandals later wrote “N-----” on his SUV and threatened him “sue cheif [sic] and pay,” and Pickens filed a $5 million damages claim against the city in February, KING-TV reported.
Pickens’ colleagues called him the “black juvenile” after a local resident dialed 9-1-1 to report that a “black juvenile” was driving a police car shortly after he had started his beat and moved his family from Atlanta to the town 30 miles from Mount Rainier, he told the Post.
The three-year police veteran and son of a military man also drove an older squad car than his colleagues and received a one-week suspension for an unsubstantiated allegation that he had worked out a gym where he wasn’t a member, he says, according to the Post.
Police Chief Bill Drake called the 2013 hiring of Pickens — the 11-member police department’s first black police officer — “a crowning achievement for us,” in an interview with the newspaper. But Drake laid him off at the end of the trial first year period, citing “unsatisfactory performance,” according to The News Tribune of nearby Tacoma.
Pickens had hired a lawyer but hadn’t filed any formal claims against the city before the vandals targeted his Ford Explorer one night in January, KIRO-TV reported. He announced the next month while flanked by NAACP officials in Tacoma that he’ll file a wrongful termination lawsuit if city officials elect not to pay the damages during the required 90-day response period to his claim, according to the Post.
“They took my manhood, my income, my security,” Pickens told the newspaper. “They thought I was just some dumb black guy who would take unemployment and kick rocks.”
But city officials don’t appear ready to fork over the sum. The city condemned the unsolved January incident but Orting Mayor Joachim (Joe) Pestinger told the Post that a $5 million payment could bust the city’s budget and isn’t warranted.
“I don’t want to settle for one dollar, if it’s my choice,” Pestinger said. “This is a false accusation, and I don’t want to give it any merit.”