PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Three black police officers who said they were assigned to desk jobs for growing beards have filed a lawsuit, claiming the dispute was symptomatic of pervasive racism in their station house.
The men said they are among 10 black officers in the same division who filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, the federal agency that investigates discrimination claims.
The federal lawsuit said white commanders at the officer’s station created an atmosphere of “pervasive and relentless discrimination, harassment and retaliation” by refusing to authorize overtime pay for black detectives and penalizing African-Americans more severely for minor workplace infractions.
The suit, filed by Det. Terrance Anderson, Detective Darryl Pearson and Officer Terrence Davis, said the problems began when they were diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition common in black men that makes shaving painful.
Doctors told the officers the irritation would subside if they grew short, neat beards. But the officers said white supervisors refused to believe the condition was real, and retaliated by transferring them to clerical jobs.
The suit names the city of Philadelphia and two police captains, Robert Lynch and Joseph O’Donnell, as defendants.
A spokeswoman for Mayor John F. Street said the city would not comment on the lawsuit. A police department spokesman also declined to discuss the case.
Anderson, Pearson and Davis said the harassment stopped and they were returned to their old jobs after Sylvester Johnson, then the department’s highest-ranking black officer, was appointed to succeed departing Police Commissioner John Timoney, who is white.
Eugene Blagmond, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, said the union was aware the dispute over the department’s facial-hair policy had produced racial tensions but believed they had been addressed.
“There were a lot of problems up there, but I’m not aware of any that are ongoing,” he said.
The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission would not reveal whether it had received discrimination complaints from other black officers.
Courts around the country have ruled police officers with pseudofolliculitis barbae are protected by anti-discrimination laws, and should be allowed to grow short beards as long as it doesn’t interfere with their work.