Many people have most likely seen this photograph but they don’t know who it depicts and what’s going on there. Go inside the post to see the whole story.
Let’s go back to October 2004. The platoon of Fire Station 5 in Westchester was playing beach volleyball. Everybody was having fun when two captains, Chris Burton and John Tohill, decided to play a joke on 51-year-old firefighter, Tenney Pierce, who triumphed in the game and called himself ‘Big Dog’.
The captains put dog food in the spaghetti and served Pierce this dinner. The black man became suspicious by the third bite. The jokers were laughing. They told him what was wrong. Pierce got very angry. He didn’t accept the apology and left slamming the door.
Pierce found a lawyer who sued for racial discrimination and demanded compensation. The court found the joke discriminating and approved paying Pierce $2.7 million.
The captains got a suspension and were fined $10,000 each. They didn’t hesitate and sued the Los Angeles Fire Department, claiming they were discriminated against on the basis of race. Imagine they have won every appeal! They were paid $2.5 million.
Thus the case of ‘Big Dog’ cost the city of Los Angeles over $6 million.
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