Armenian Officers Sue Glendale Police Department on Charges of Discrimination

Tert.am
14:18 – 30.01.10

Four current and one former police officers of Armenian descent have
filed a joint lawsuit against the Glendale Police Department, alleging
years of discrimination, derogatory comments and harassment because of
their ethnicity, reports the Glendale News Press.

Officers John Balian and Robert Parseghian; Sgts. Vahak Mardikian and
Tigran Topadzhikyan; and former Officer Benny Simonzad filed the
lawsuit in U.S. District Court last week, alleging myriad incidents of
on-the-job discrimination and harassment.

In a city in which nearly half the population is of Armenian descent,
the lawsuit threatened to draw out some of the political vitriol of
years past.

On January 25, City Attorney Scott Howard rebuffed the claims made in
the lawsuit, but said officials were still reviewing the case in its
entirety.