Some personnel at the Port Angeles Coast Guard station say they have been taunted, vandalized, discriminated against — and in one case goaded into a barroom fight.
Most of the incidents, outlined in a report by Capt. William W. Peterson, the station’s commanding officer, to his superiors, have involved Coast Guard enlisted men of Hispanic or Latino descent.
But an African American petty officer requested — and received — reassignment to another command after his car parked in a retailer’s parking lot was vandalized twice with racial slurs and scratches.
Peterson’s report, which outlines nine incidents which allegedly occurred in Port Angeles since last fall, prompted a Coast Guard Investigative Services probe from the Seattle district headquarters.
The Seattle Coast Guard’s civil rights office and the U.S. Justice Department’s community relations service have also been contacted.
The report, which Peterson said is required of Coast Guard skippers when they are told of civil rights incidents and violations, also was sent to Washington, D.C.
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