Black LAPD Cop Awarded $1.2 Million over Racial Harassment

References to watermelons, fried chicken

A jury awarded $1.2 million in damages to a black Los Angeles police officer who claimed that white colleagues racially harassed him with jokes about watermelons and Soul Glow.

Earl Wright sued the city of Los Angeles and is police department in Superior Court last year, claiming his fellow officers and bosses retaliated against him after he complained of harassment by his superior Sgt. Peter Foster and other white officers.

Wright claimed in his complaint that the incidents at the central division station where he worked left him "very upset, embarrassed and humiliated."