[url]http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun03/151278.asp[/url]

Police File Discrimination Suit

17 white officers allege bias in promotion rates.

MILWAUKEE --- Seventeen police officers have sued the Milwaukee Police Department, saying they have been discriminated against because they are white men.

The civil rights suit, filed Friday in federal court in Milwaukee, blames Police Chief Arthur Jones for promoting black men and members of other minority groups to the position of captain at a faster rate than white men. It also says the city's Fire and Police Commission, which has the final say on promotions, has rubber-stamped Jones' choices without asking him the reasons for his recommendations. The City of Milwaukee is also named as a defendant in the suit.

"(The men filing the suit) have the knowledge, the experience and the expertise, and they should be given an equal opportunity," said attorney William Rettko, who is representing the men, most of whom are lieutenants.

The men are seeking $300,000 each in compensatory damages, as well as punitive damages and attorney fees. They are also seeking immediate promotions to captain for most of the plaintiffs. Two of the men were promoted recently, and one has retired.

Up to the rank of lieutenant, promotions are based on testing. After that, Rettko said, the chief makes a recommendation, which the Fire and Police Commission must then approve. The commission has never denied a promotion to one of Jones' choices, Rettko said.

According to the suit, about 78% of the lieutenants eligible for promotion to captain have been white males since Jones became chief, yet more than half of Jones' recommendations have been non-white males.

The suit says that before Jones became chief, it was customary for lieutenants to serve for three years before being promoted. Since Jones took over, white males have served an average of 7.6 years before being promoted, while non-white males have spent an average of 2.9 years as lieutenants.

In addition, 11 non-white lieutenants with less than 21 months at that rank have been promoted, while only one white male with less than three years as a lieutenant has been named a captain, the suit says.

"It's a matter of principle," said plaintiff Wayne Jensen. "I have 35 years on, and am not certified to be a captain, but someone out of the academy is then promoted to captain. I can appreciate breaking the glass ceiling, but I shouldn't have to blow up the building to break the ceiling."

Jensen said that Jones got to his current position through filing similar lawsuits.

"I would have hoped he learned the lesson," Jensen said. "He had to fight to rectify (discrimination), but he used it against us."

Jones declined to comment on the suit. Robert "Woody" Welch, chairman of the Fire and Police Commission, said he could not comment.

art jones is a piece of shit

I am surprised and offended that something like that could happen in America!

it's about damn time!!!!!

Come now tell us what you really think[;D]

They will lose the suit, in the interests, of "workplace diversity".

In other words, it's GOOD for whites, in the long run, to have institutionalized racisism...[rolleyes]