Black firefighters in North Carolina call for their chief to quit claiming he failed to investigate racism including two white captains who talked about running over George Floyd demonstrators
A group of black firefighters in North Carolina are calling for the chief of Winston-Salem's department to be fired for failing to respond to accusations of racism within his force.
They claim that two white captains talked about running over demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd, and that a firefighter made a noose during a rope and knots class in November 2017.
Last month the group, which calls itself Omnibus, filed an official complaint to City Hall, seeking the departure of Chief William 'Trey' Mayo, who is white.
They accuse him of turning a blind eye to over a decade of allegations.
'It's a festering problem that has become even more disease-ridden and even more detrimental to the life of the individuals who work here because of the current chief,' said Thomas Penn, a 28-year veteran firefighter and a leader of Omnibus.
Timika Ingram, who joined the fire department in July 2006, said that she suffered years of abuse and racial taunts, which forced her to eventually quit in 2010.
'You develop alligator skin so that you can get on through the process,' she said of the initial training.
'And then, hopefully, once you get in, you'll be able to be an advocate or be able to be heard if anything goes on, because a lot went on with me.'
Almost immediately on joining, she told AP, other firefighters stole her food and took her uniforms out of her personal space.
Thomas Penn (pictured) is part of a group of black firefighters in Winston-Salem, N.C., who claim that two white captains talked about running over demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd
Timika Ingram said four years as a firefighter in North Carolina from 2006-2010 amounted to a collection of indignities. She said other firefighters threw her new cellphone on the roof of the station house and placed nails under the wheels of her pickup truck
They threw her new cellphone on the roof of the station house and placed nails under the wheels of her pickup truck.
As she prepared to answer a call, someone poured tobacco juice in her boots.
'It caused me pain, sleepless nights, suffering, anxiety,' said Ingram, whose four years as a firefighter in North Carolina amounted to a collection of indignities.
The cellphone incident was a significant factor in Ingram's eventual departure because, without it, her three children had no way to reach her.
She said her white counterparts asked if she'd actually left her phone where it was last seen and even pretended to search for it.
'My daughter was a latchkey kid at the age of nine,' she said.
'My kids had no other way to get in touch. They didn't know how. Something went wrong with my kids, and I couldn't get to them and they couldn't get to me.
'That right there just set it off.'
The black firefighters' group, Omnibus, claims that a firefighter made a noose during a rope and knots class in November 2017
A leader of Omnibus called the alleged racism within the Winston-Salem Fire Department 'a festering problem that has become even more disease-ridden'
Ingram was transferred and expressed concerns over her treatment to a superior who she said did not address them.
'I was like, "I'm fighting a losing battle,"' she recalled.
'You can talk all you want, say what you got to say.'
After she quit, Ingram's life spiraled downward for a time. She said she married someone 'to mask the pain,' but that ended in divorce. Her car was repossessed and she was homeless.
She missed work for four months, and doctors told her she developed lupus as a result of the stress she'd undergone as a firefighter.
Retired Winston-Salem firefighter Gary Waddell experienced discrimination on a different plane in 1989 because of his marriage to a white woman who visited him at the station shortly after he was assigned there.
'I didn't think anything of it, but when my wife came inside of this fire station, I was told by my supervisor, who was a captain, that my wife could no longer come to the station to visit me,' Waddell said.
A 'climate assessment' which will evaluate the entire Winston-Salem Fire Department regarding diversity, race, gender and sexual orientation, is supposed to be done by the end of this year
'But the other members of my crew that I was working with, their wives could come by. But mine couldn't. So that's how I started my career.'
Today, Ingram works in medical services in Charlotte, the same job she took after leaving the fire department.
She worked out a deal to get her car back, and she's pursuing a degree in psychology. But she still thinks about the career she had to abandon.
'I just wished I could have stayed,' she said. 'I really do, because I worked hard to get there. I trained to get there.'
Lee Garrity, the Winston-Salem city manager, said he could not comment, citing the state's personnel privacy law.
After she quit the Winston-Salem Fire Department, Ingram said her life spiraled as she became homeless and doctors told her she developed lupus as a result of the stress she'd undergone as a firefighter
He said the city has launched a so-called 'climate assessment' through a Charlotte-based firm, which will evaluate the entire fire department regarding diversity, race, gender and sexual orientation.
A report is due by the end of the year, he said.
'We'd had very few grievances or complaints in the last couple of years,' Garrity said.
'But I am sure there are opportunities for improvement.'
Mayo did not return multiple phone calls from AP seeking comment.
In early November, Penn said the climate assessment had not begun.
He added in an email that department administrators, including Mayo, 'has attempted to intimidate and bully our members' by walking in during interviews.
The issues are not limited to fire fighting teams solely in North Carolina.
Across the country, firefighters are confronting incidents of racism and discrimination as part of a burgeoning movement to call out and address racial injustice in America.
Timika Ingram holds a jacket she had when she was a firefighter in Winston-Salem. Ingram said she expressed concerns over her treatment to a superior who did not address them
Two black women sued the city of Denver in September, saying its fire department discriminated against them because of their gender and race.
One alleged a captain overseeing her training said she should 'keep her head down and act like a slave' to graduate from the program.
Last year, a black firefighter sued city officials in Lansing, Michigan, saying they did nothing to stop racial discrimination within the fire department after he received hostile comments and found a banana on his assigned firetruck's windshield.
He filed another lawsuit this summer.
A white Delaware firefighter was charged in July with hate crimes and harassment after allegedly sending threatening messages to a black paramedic and two part-time workers, one who is black and the other white who has black family members, the News Journal reported.
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