EDITORIAL LESSONS UNLEARNED ACTING LAFD CHIEF NEEDS TO GET TOUGH ON HAZING.

AMAZINGLY, members of the Los Angeles Fire Department have failed to learn that hazing and other inappropriate behavior among their ranks are totally unacceptable.

At the same time that interim Fire Chief Douglas Barry was celebrating the accomplishments of his first 100 days since taking over the department, two new allegations of hazing, one with racial overtones, were under investigation.

Barry, a 31-year veteran of the LAFD, was appointed to take over the department after Chief William Bamattre resigned in December under pressure after a slew of hazing incidents roiled the department.

In one highly publicized case, Firefighter Tennie Pierce received an outrageous settlement of $2.7 million from the city for his complaint stemming from a hazing incident in which his colleagues served him dog food. Only Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's veto stopped Pierce from walking away with the public's money.

Barry says that he doesn't tolerate hazing and made "zero tolerance" the central idea of his tenure. Yet these two incidents indicate that the culture of the LAFD hasn't changed. In one of the two recent cases, a black rookie firefighter found a banana and white lotion in his locker.

This perhaps should be the goal of Chief Barry's next 100 days: To put his words into action.

To do that, Barry must respond to these new incidents with swift justice. If the investigations find the claims are merited, then the firefighters involved must be fired.

The failure to do that in the past is why it is still going on, and why the city will be liable for future payouts.

Zero tolerance is what the department needs to recover its reputation as a place of professional men and women engaged in protecting lives and property of Angelenos.