African-American Officers Sue Baltimore Police Dept.

Twenty-one black current and former city police officers filed a federal class-action lawsuit Monday, alleging discrimination within the city's Police Department. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, accuses the department of condoning a hostile workplace, blocking black officers from promotion, levying uneven discipline and retaliating against officers who spoke out against discrimination. It also alleges that racism led to the firing last month of former police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark. The group of officers seeks the appointment of an independent monitor over department discipline, reinstatement of fired officers, expunging of negative marks from the disciplinary records of some officers, payment of lost wages to plaintiffs who were suspended without pay or fired because of racism, and punitive damages and compensation. The lawsuit names as its defendants Mayor Martin O'Malley, acting police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, former Police Commissioners Edward T. Norris and Thomas C. Frazier, Labor Commissioner Sean R. Malone and other city lawyers. City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler called the allegations "untrue" and said many are barred by statutes of limitations. [more]