Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Todd Chamberlain is shown in this AP file photo.The Los Angeles Police Department commander who is a finalist for Chattanooga police chief and was mentioned in a civil lawsuit for allegedly failing to report racist behavior said significant parts of that lawsuit were false or misleading.
Todd Chamberlain, along with Chattanooga Police Department Acting Chief David Roddy and Assistant Chief Edwin McPherson, were criticized Tuesday by social justice group Concerned Citizens for Justice for various reasons. Both Roddy and McPherson declined to comment for this story.
Chamberlain, who is white, said many of the issues mentioned in the lawsuit filed by Earl Wright, a black LAPD officer, against the department happened either before he took command of the station or originated in the toxic culture of the station years before his time there.
“That unit had chronic problems for a long time,” he said. “When you take on something that difficult, that wasn’t a quick turnaround.”
Chamberlain spoke on one incident specifically in which the officer complained about a text message he received from someone else at the station. The text message was a photo of a yellow duckling with its arms raised above its head, standing in front of five black ducklings with the caption “sup n – – ,” the lawsuit claims.