One of the largest whistleblower settlements in San Francisco history will be paid to a former firefighter who says he endured two decades of racial abuse and retaliation that began when he was a rookie at the fire academy.
Larry Jacobs, 60, who retired for medical reasons in 2023, recalled his long-running ordeal in a recent interview with NBC Bay Area after the city agreed to the $1.2 million settlement.
It was his second legal victory against the city. Jacobs previously sued the city over mistreatment he says he endured during his rookie training at the fire academy.
“It literally, for me, felt like a plantation,” said Jacobs, who joined the department in 2005 -- eight years after a court order mandating minority hiring and promotions within the department had been lifted.
Jacobs said two fellow black trainees at the fire academy were soon subjected to racial abuse. When he was sidelined with a shoulder injury, he says, he was given a toothbrush and ordered to clean toilets. He was also ordered to be segregated from other recruits during meals at the training center on Treasure Island.
“One of the instructors there said: ‘Have the cleaning boy do it,’’’ Jacobs recalled, “and then another instructor, when I was walking, from behind, said, ‘look at this houseboy.’’’
Jacobs says despite the mistreatment, he was prepared to move on when he finished his training in 2008. But another incident of alleged verbal abuse -- by a training commander – led him to write to the chief...
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