Tennie Pierce Puts L.A. in the Dog House
Check out today's Daily News lead editorial, Dog food for everyone:
AFTER all the grandstanding and the backroom negotiations, would-be racial-harassment victim Tennie Pierce will be collecting $1.43 million from the taxpayers of Los Angeles.To give you a little perspective, abuse victims who settled with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are collecting roughly $1.25 million apiece.
Apparently getting sexually abused as a minor by a priest, having your innocence destroyed and your life upended is worth less than eating a few bites of dog food with the boys at the fire station. Go figure.
It's worth a lot less when you consider that Pierce, a former L.A. firefighter, will also be getting a pension as part of his settlement.
Wow, who wouldn't swallow a few kibbles and bits along with their spaghetti for that payout?
Pierce, who is African-American, successfully exploited the Los Angeles Fire Department's pathetic history of racial harassment, claiming that his dog-food incident was racially motivated. But the public has seen no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a dumb prank among a bunch of immature colleagues.
Indeed, Pierce himself was one of the most immature pranksters on occasion. Photos show him involved in anti-gay and anti-Semitic hazing incidents against fellow firefighters.
All of which suggests that Pierce shouldn't be getting one cent from L.A. taxpayers. But the City Council, which raises taxes and fees without a qualm, was only too willing to give him $2.7 million originally and apparently even more so after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vetoed its first gutless giveaway of public funds.
Now, the council has agreed to settle once again, only reducing the cost when the mayor threatened another veto. Of course, with the cost of outside counsel thrown in, the bill to taxpayers will turn out to be about the same $2.7 million.
And it won't end there. The city lacks the will to fix anything, so there will be more frivolous lawsuits and costly settlements.
Maybe taxpayers will wake up and start suing City Hall - after all, we're getting the worst mistreatment of all.
Comments
September 25, 2007
LA Daily News
Letter to the editor
Via E-Mail – dnopinion@dailynews.com
Dear Editor:
Re: “Dog Food for Everyone”
The Tennie Pierce case is a perfect example of the price all Californians pay for lawsuit abuse. As Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse illustrated in it’s July report titled “Litigation Costs and Opportunities Lost: The Fiscal Impact of Lawsuit Abuse on California’s Largest Counties and Cities,” our state’s largest cities and counties spent over $276 million in the last two fiscal years in verdicts and settlements and outside council. With settlements like this one, it’s no wonder that over $100 million of that was from the city and county of Los Angeles alone.
Public sector lawsuits are tying up our budgets and taking money away from much needed items such as road repair, public safety and parks. Without our consent, our budget dollars are shifted to cover things like compensating Pierce, a “victim” of hazing who participated in similar hazing acts himself.
We deserve for our hard-earned tax dollars to be put to better use. Our state, our counties and our cities are continuously making budget cuts to much needed programs, but our litigation costs only increase. This is not the way our tax dollars were intended to be spent and we should not stand for it.
Sincerely,
Maryann Maloney, Executive Director
Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse
PO Box 26
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
949-375-0856
Posted by: Maryann Maloney | September 25, 2007 9:55 AM